Background: To investigate the acceptance and adherence to an intervention that included teaching Pelvic\r\nFloor (PF) muscle exercises to women who underwent the routine examination for cervical cancer prevention.\r\n\r\nMethods: This prospective study occurred in a primary care setting. Thirty-eight women who received a functional\r\nassessment of the PF musculature and behavioural guidance were interviewed by telephone two months later. The\r\nintervention consisted of one single section of teaching adequate contraction and PF exercises. Questionnaires\r\nwere employed that addressed urinary losses, level of physical activity, sexual function (Female Sexual Function\r\nIndex - FSFI) and open questions for adherence and acceptance. Pelvic floor muscle were evaluated immediately\r\nafter the routine examination for cervical cancer prevention with vaginal palpation and ranked with Ortiz scale.\r\nDescriptive statistics and the Mann Whitney U test were used for p < 05.\r\n\r\nResults: Twenty-four women (63.1%) adhered to the recommended exercises. The reports of the participants\r\ndemonstrated that they accepted the intervention and showed a positive impact on diverse aspects: knowledge, sex\r\nlife, encouragement to practice physical exercise and PF exercises, and improvement in urinary loss symptoms.\r\nThe FSFI mean score was 21.87 (sd = 8.74; median = 23.1). Aspects such as age, schooling, and level of physical\r\nactivity, body mass index, sexual function, and urinary loss symptoms did not affect adherence.\r\n\r\nConclusion: Preventive actions such as the one described here constitute a way of facilitating access to\r\nhealthcare among the population with the lowest financial means. This suggests that such interventions should be\r\nencouraged in primary health care settings.
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