OBJECTIVES:Investigators sought to assess whether age was related to patient understanding of pelvic floor disorders; given studies show that increased age is associated with lower health literacy.

METHODS:This was a cross-sectional survey of new urogynecology patients. Enrolled participants completed a survey including demographics, history of urinary incontinence (UI) and pelvic organ prolapse symptoms and treatment, the Prolapse and Incontinence Knowledge Questionnaire (PIKQ), self-assessment of UI and prolapse knowledge, and a pelvic anatomy diagram to label. To achieve 80% power to detect a 2-point difference in PIKQ score, 33 subjects were required per age group (<65 and ≥65 years old).

RESULTS:One hundred thirty-five of 160 new urogynecologic patients completed the survey (84% response rate). Thirty-seven participants were older than 65 years, and 98 were younger than 65 years. Total PIKQ scores (maximum, 24), the primary outcome, for the older and younger groups were 15.3 and 15.0, respectively (P = 0.7). The 2 groups self-rated UI and prolapse knowledge similarly, rating knowledge as excellent, very good, or good in 60% (P = 0.3) and 40% (P = 0.2) of subjects, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS:Baseline patient understanding of UI and pelvic organ prolapse was low as assessed by PIKQ score and was not influenced by age.