Pelvic floor muscle exercise practice and its determinants among postpartum women in Central Ethiopia: as a strategy for preventing pelvic floor disorders

Pelvic floor disorders are highly prevalent among reproductive-age women in sub-Saharan Africa and commonly lead to urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, bowel dysfunction, sexual problems, and reduced quality of life. Pelvic floor muscle exercise, defined as repeated contraction and relaxation of the pelvic floor muscles, is an effective preventive and non-surgical treatment of pelvic floor disorders. However, despite the high burden of pelvic floor disorders in Ethiopia, the significance and role of pelvic floor muscle exercise have not yet been studied in a study setting. This study aimed to assess the Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise Practice and Its Determinants among Postpartum Women in Gurage Zone, Central Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study was employed from May 12 to June 12, 2023. A 422 postpartum women were selected using a systematic random sampling technique. A pre-tested and structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were entered into Epidata 3.1 and exported into SPSS version 26 software for analysis. Both bivariable and multivariable binary logistic regressions were performed. Variables with a P-value < 0.05 at a 95% confidence interval were considered statistically significant. In this study,420 study participants were included with a response rate of 99.5%. The proportion of women practicing pelvic floor exercises was 12.14% (95% CI: 6.3, 18.7). Higher education (AOR = 1.40; 95% CI: 1.27, 4.31), ANC visits (AOR = 4.31;95%CI:1.36, 9.57), women with urinary incontinence (AOR = 6.47;95%CI:3.96, 11.54), and women's knowledge (AOR = 6.31;95%CI:3.59, 12.23) were determinants of pelvic floor muscle exercise practice. The present study showed that 87.86% of postpartum mothers lacked proper pelvic floor muscle exercise practices. Thus, encouraging women to attend ANC visits as recommended, providing awareness through health education, and offering counseling on pelvic floor muscle exercises can increase their practice and help reduce pelvic floor disorders.