• Roxana Geoffrion, Sophia Badowski, Merry Gong, Gurkiran Mann, Manisha Tilak, Nicole Koenig, and Terry Lee.
• Associate Professor, Director of the Fellowship in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery, and Chair of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Residency Research Committee, all at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver.
• Can Fam Physician. 2023 Nov 1; 69 (11): e229e235e229-e235.

ObjectiveTo design a primary care clinical tool (Pelvic Floor Health Index [PFHI]) to screen for postpartum pelvic floor disorders, as well as complete its psychometric validation.DesignProspective cohort study.SettingTwo tertiary care obstetric centres in Vancouver, BC.ParticipantsPrimiparous women older than 19 years of age who were in the immediate postpartum period.Main Outcome MeasuresThe PFHI was administered to 74 primiparous women immediately postpartum and at 2, 4, and 6 months postpartum. For evaluation of convergent and divergent construct validity, participants also completed several validated questionnaires, including the Female Sexual Functioning Index, the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory, the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Fifteen women repeated their 6-month questionnaires 2 weeks later in order to determine test-retest reliability. Responsiveness was assessed by measuring the PFHI score change from baseline to 6 months postpartum.ResultsPelvic Floor Health Index score was inversely correlated with subscale scores on the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory at all time points. There were moderate correlations between PFHI score and the Female Sexual Functioning Index and 36-Item Short Form Health Survey scores at several time points. There were weak correlations with postpartum depression scores. The intraclass correlation coefficient for test-retest reliability was 0.78 (95% CI 0.47 to 0.92). The PFHI mean total score significantly improved by 1.8 (95% CI 1.0 to 2.6) at 6 months postpartum.ConclusionThe PFHI is a 10-item, newly validated, and psychometrically robust questionnaire that can be administered to patients in the postpartum period to screen for pelvic floor dysfunction.Copyright © 2023 the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

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