Do women have an accurate perception of their pelvic floor muscle contraction? A cross‐sectional study

Aims To assess women's self‐perception of their pelvic floor muscle (PFM) contraction and its agreement with an assessed PFM contraction. Further, to assess a possible correlation between women's self‐perception and reports of urinary incontinence (UI) and between PFM contraction and severity of UI. Methods A cross‐sectional observational study including 82 women. The study was conducted in a basic healthcare unit in Brazil. PFM contraction was assessed by a physiotherapist and estimated by women using the Modified Oxford Scale (MOS). UI symptoms were assessed using a validated questionnaire (ICIQ‐UI‐SF). A descriptive analysis of the data was performed. The weighted κ coefficient, Spearman's correlation coefficient, and Fisher's exact test were used to analyze data. Results Eighty‐two women with a mean age of 46.83 (±17.94) were analyzed. The majority (98.8%) believed they were able to voluntarily contract their PFM, but only 33% correctly estimated their PFM considering the examiner assessment as reference. No agreement (κ = 0.139, P = .087) was found between the examiner's classification and the women's estimation of their PFM contraction. Women's self‐perception did not correlate with the ICIQ‐IU‐SF (r's = .011, P = .922). A moderate negative correlation was found between the assessed PFM contraction and the ICIQ‐UI‐SF score (r's = −.406, P = .00). Conclusion Most of the women did not show an accurate self‐perception of PFM contraction. No correlation between women's self‐perception and the ICIQ‐UI‐SF score was found, but a negative correlation was found between the assessed PFM contraction and the ICIQ‐UI‐SF score.