Gillian Campbell

Award title:   Post-doctoral fellowship

Project Title:   Conservative managEMent of Pelvic floOr disorders for Women: barriERs to engagement. (The EMPOWER study)

Brief Summary:  Pelvic floor disorders (PFD) such as urinary incontinence (UI) are debilitating, affecting all aspects of life. Nearly half of UK women report symptoms and untreated they often deteriorate. Robust evidence supports simple conservative treatment, yet less than 30% seek help. Potential causes may be embarrassment or the belief that conditions are a normal consequence of childbirth or aging. Some healthcare professionals (HCP) have reported difficulties knowing how and where to refer women. Previous investigations have used surveys, which may not examine issues in depth. Other qualitative work has recruited directly from those already receiving treatment as opposed to women who have not sought help.

The Women’s Health Strategy calls for evidence to inform women’s access to care. Research regarding barriers for help-seeking women with PFD is therefore timely.

Our aim is to investigate barriers preventing women seeking/ receiving help for PFD.

This will be a sequential, three phase, mixed-methods study.

1.  Interviews with up to 30 women self-reporting PFD, analysed thematically.

2.  Survey of HCPs to establish management strategies of PFD in primary care, analysed using descriptive statistics. Interviews of HCPs recruited from the survey; schedule based on survey results, analysed thematically.

3.   2-3 focus groups of 4-6 women to discuss facilitators to aid help-seeking, analysed thematically.

We anticipate that the findings will inform future pathways to care for PFD and therefore improve access for women seeking help. Findings will also inform aspects of the design of a future definitive trial, to investigate conservative management of PFD in primary care

Start date:   01 October 2023

End date:   30 September 2025