Effect of home-based Kegel exercises on quality of life in women with stress and mixed urinary incontinence

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of home-based Kegel exercises in women with stress and mixed urinary incontinence. A total of 90 women with urodynamically proven urinary stress (SUI) and mixed (MUI) incontinence awaiting anti-incontinence surgery were recruited in the urogynaecology clinic of Ankara Zekai Tahir Burak Women's Health Research and Education Hospital. Of these, 18 women were excluded due to low compliance and the remaining 72 were divided into two groups according to urodynamic diagnosis (SUI group, n = 38; MUI group, n = 34). Age, BMI, menopausal status and medical history of the women were recorded. The women took Kegel exercise, consisting of 10 sets of contractions/day; each set included 10 repetitions, for at least 8 weeks. To evaluate the pelvic floor muscle strength, the modified Oxford grading system was used before and after Kegel exercising. The Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ-7); Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI-6) and the Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI-I) questions were compared before and after 8 weeks of Kegel exercising. The age, BMI, gravidity, menopausal status, macrosomic fetus history, hypertension and asthma were similar between the groups. There were statistically significant lower scores in both IIQ-7 and UDI-6 before and after Kegel exercises within each group (p < 0.001). The mean change of the IIQ-7 and UDI-6 score was statistically significantly higher in the SUI group than in the MUI group (p = 0.023 and p = 0.003, respectively). Results of the Oxford scale were also statistically significantly higher after Kegel exercises within each group (p = < 0.001). In total, 68.4% of the women in the SUI group and 41.2% of the women in the MUI group reported improvements which were statistically significant (p = 0.02). We conclude that home-based Kegel exercises, with no supervision, have been found effective in women with SUI and MUI. The improvement was more prominent in women with SUI.

Novel minimally invasive laser treatment of urinary incontinence in women

“…Thus, the majority of therapeutical approaches aim at strengthening the support of the pelvic floor, either conservatively or surgically. Although, there are reports on the beneficial effects of conservative treatment , patients have to be very compliant and the final outcome remains questionable. On the other hand, none of the existing surgical approaches is optimal as they are often associated with complications .…”

“…There are many approaches for treating UI; the conservative therapy includes lifestyle changes, pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT), bladder training, and electro‐magnetic stimulation of the pelvic floor muscles and drugs for UUI from OAB . A variety of surgical procedures are based on traditional Burch colposuspension and bladder‐neck slings and their modifications .…”

Evaluation of Effect of Kegel Exercise for the Management of Stress Incontinence in Women of Gujrat, India

“…They opined that home-based Kegel exercises, with no supervision are effective in women with SUI and MUI and the improvement is better in women with SUI. 16 Above studies indicates discrepancies in results of various methods. There is also different opinion as far as pelvic floor muscle exercise is concerned.…”

Role of Interferential Therapy along with Pelvic Floor Exercises in the Management of Stress Incontinence

“…They concluded that even home based Kegel exercise if suitably trained is useful for the management of stress urinary incontinence and there is no need of supervision. 9 Bo K, Talseth T and Holme I in a single blind, randomized controlled trial of the pelvic floor exercises, electrical stimulation, vaginal cones and no treatment category for the management of genuine stress incontinence observed that pelvic floor muscle training was better than other methods. 10 Rodrigo A Castro also had the similar conclusion and recommended that pelvic floor muscle exercise should be offered as the first choice of treatment for the management of stress urinary incontinence.…”