The impact of personality traits on pessary treatment outcomes in patients with pelvic organ prolapse.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS

Personality traits can play an important role in outcomes of different chronic disorders. We hypothesize that the pessary treatment outcomes in symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse (POP) can also be influenced by personality traits.

METHODS

This prospective observational study included consecutive women with symptomatic POP seeking pessary treatment between December 2018 and January 2020. The personality profile was measured using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R) at baseline, and patient health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was measured using the Pelvic Floor Impact Questionnaire-7 (PFIQ-7) and the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory (PFDI-20) at baseline and at 3 months. The correlation between HRQoL and personality traits was investigated by means of linear regression.

RESULTS

In total, 213 patients were included, of which 163 patients (76.5%) achieved success by the 3-month follow-up. No significant differences were found in the EPQ scores between the successful and unsuccessful groups. The scores on both the PFIQ-7 and PFDI-20 correlated significantly with neuroticism and correlated inversely with extraversion at both baseline and the 3-month follow-up. The degree of improvement in PFIQ-7 and PFDI-20 scores was not associated with personality traits.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data indicate that neurotic and introverted women were more bothered by POP-related symptoms, although the improvement in symptoms was not significantly associated with personality traits after 3 months of pessary treatment.