Pelvic floor disorders in women in rural Ethiopia (360G-Wellcome-212518_Z_18_Z)

Urinary incontinence (UI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP) commonly affect women after childbirth. In the developed world initial treatment is non-surgical with pelvic floor exercises for UI and vaginal support pessaries or pelvic floor exercises for POP. Working with colleagues in Ethiopia we know that UI and POP affect much younger women, with greater severity. Conservative treatments are not offered because of lack of trained personnel, and significant difficulties with transport and access to care. Pelvic floor disorders are a modern epidemic and the introduction of sustainable treatment models is a public health priority. Our longterm goal is to design acceptable, sustainable and deliverable fully developed conservative treatment interventions for the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence to be disseminated, delivered and evaluated in a large prospective study. This application will fund three workpackages which bring key disciplinary perspectives together to lay the groundwork for this goal: a priority setting partnership in Gondar, Ethiopia; formative research with qualitative interviews to understand views and experiences of women and stakeholders to inform the design of the intervention, and an exploration of individual and community stigma associated with the condition to develop educational materials using concepts of communication for social change.