Questionnaires for women with pelvic floor disorders

Excerpt

Pelvic floor symptoms can be assessed in a number of ways. Thorough clinical history taking is an important method of assessing a patient’s symptoms and their effect on daily life. However, in a situation in which a standardized, reproducible assessment is desired, clinical histories can be problematic because they vary with each clinician and patient encounter. The most valid way of measuring the presence, severity and impact of a symptom or condition on a patient’s activities and well-being is through the use of psychometrically robust self-administered questionnaires [1]. An increasing number of questionnaires for women with pelvic floor disorders are now available. Most are intended to evaluate lower urinary tract symptoms. But recently, questionnaires have been developed for women with fecal incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. In general, these questionnaires can be separated into one of three categories: (1) those that measure the presence of particular symptoms and their severity (symptom questionnaires); (2) those that measure quality of life (quality of life [QOL] questionnaires) and (3) those that measure sexual function (sexual function questionnaires). …