Abstract
Hung H-C, Chih S-Y, Lin H-H, Tsauo J-Y. Exercise adherence to pelvic floor muscle
strengthening is not a significant predictor of symptom reduction for women with urinary
incontinence.
Objective
To explore the predictors of treatment effectiveness for women with urinary incontinence
(UI) receiving pelvic floor muscle (PFM) strengthening.
Design
Four-month cohort study.
Setting
Laboratory.
Participants
Volunteers (N=68; mean age ± SD, 50.5±6.0y) with UI.
Intervention
Four-month daily PFM strengthening exercise program at home.
Main Outcome Measures
Outcome measures included self-reported improvement, Severity Index score, 3-days
diary, strength of PFM, and quality of life. The participants' recall of the amount
of exercise after the 4-month exercise period was used to assess the exercise adherence.
Results
Fifty-one (75%) of 68 women reported that their condition improved after 4 months
of exercise. There were significant reductions in Severity Index score, number of
voidings per day, number of leakages per day, and impact on quality of life (P<.05). In addition, the score of PFM strength was significantly improved (P=.001). There were no significant correlations between the change score of the Severity
Index and age, body mass index, parity, type of UI, duration of UI, menopausal status,
and amount of exercise (all P>.10). Multiple regression analysis revealed that initial severity of symptoms and
improvement of PFM strength predicted 51.3% of variance in 4-month exercise effectiveness
(change score of the Severity Index).
Conclusions
The effectiveness of the 4-month PFM strengthening program was influenced by the severity
of symptoms and the improvement score of PFM strength instead of exercise adherence.
Women who had more significant symptoms of leakage (higher score on the Severity Index
at baseline) and who had more improvement of PFM strength showed more improvement
of symptoms after PFM strengthening.
Key Words
List of Abbreviations:
BMI (body mass index), MUI (mixed urinary incontinence), PFM (pelvic floor muscle), PFMT (pelvic floor muscle training), SUI (stress urinary incontinence), UI (urinary incontinence)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 26, 2012
Footnotes
Supported by the National Science Council of the Republic of China (grant no. NSC95-2314-B002-226-MY2).
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
Reprints are not available from the author.
Clinical Registration Trial No.: NCT00270738
In-press corrected proof published online on May 8, 2012, at www.archives-pmr.org.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
