Screening of the pelvic organ prolapse without a physical examination; (a community based study)

This study had two phases. In the first phase in order to develop a simple inventory for assessment of POP, the Pelvic Floor Disorder Inventory (PFDI) was completed for a convenience sample of 200 women, aged 18-45 years, referred for annual gynecologic examination, and their pelvic organ prolapse was assessed using the standard protocol. The most sensitive and specific questions were selected as pelvic organ prolapse simple screening inventory (POPSSI). In the second phase, using a stratified multistage probability cluster sampling method, the sensitivity and specificity of the POPSSI was investigated in a non selected sample of 954 women recruited from among reproductive aged women living in four randomly selected provinces of Iran.The sensitivity and specificity of POPSSI for identification of pelvic organ prolapse in the general population were 45.5 and 87.4% respectively; these values were 96.7 and 20% among those women who were aware of their pelvic dysfunction.Community based screening studies on pelvic organ prolapse could be facilitated by using the POPSSI, the sensitivity of which would be enhanced through conducting of public awareness programs.Pelvic organ prolapse (POP), a common disorder resulting from relaxation of the pelvic floor muscles [1,2], is estimated to have a prevalence of 30-50% among women, aged 50 and over [3]. Although mortality resulting from POP is not significant[4], it has a huge impact on the daily activities of women afflicted by this condition, often disrupting and decreasing their quality of life[5]. Pelvic organ prolapse and its complications impose a considerable economic burden on the person and it has been estimated that about 11% of women undergo surgery for POP before the age of 79 with 29.2% requiring repeated surgery [6-8]. Subramanian et al noted that the cost of surgery for pelvic organ prolapse in 2005 was 144,236,557 euro, 83,067,825 euro, and 81,030,907 euro in Germany, France, and England, respectively[9]There are f