Kegel Exercises for Stress Urinary Incontinence

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Study about a targeted group of women suffering from self-reported stress urinary incontinence, attend a Kegel exercise training program. The group was divided into two; supervised and unsupervised. Whilst both groups benefited from initially seeing a women's health physiotherapist for a pelvic floor muscle assessment and a bespoke Kegel exercise program, only the supervised group continued to see the physiotherapist for monthly bio-feedback training. The unsupervised group relied on their own motivation to perform their Kegel exercises as prescribed. At the end of the twelve week program, both groups had a final pelvic floor muscle strength assessment by the physiotherapist to determine any changes and subsequent improvements in urinary incontinence. Aim : Investigate and compare the efficacy of supervised Kegel exercises with biofeedback on Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) and Pelvic Floor Muscle Strength (PFMS) compared to unsupervised Kegel exercises. The primary goal of this study was to determine the effectiveness of supervised Kegel exercises using BT versus unsupervised Kegel exercises without biofeedback training, on SUI. A secondary outcome was to establish whether an improvement was observed in PFMS and subsequently, the effect of this on SUI. It was hypothesized that regular support and visual motivation and direction of BT from the physiotherapist, would provide greater results.

Official Title
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Effectiveness of Supervised Kegel Exercises Using Bio-feedback Versus Unsupervised Kegel Exercises on Stress Urinary Incontinence: A Quasi-experimental Study

Conditions
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Urinary Incontinence,Stress

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: biofeedback training


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: being female aged over 18 years suffer from SUI (their subjective disclosure was based on a description provided for their reference) did not perform Kegel exercises be available for duration of 12-week program Exclusion Criteria: pregnancy and breastfeeding

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Other: supervised group during study<br>monthly physiotherapist appointment for half of the cohort including pelvic floor examination by physiotherapist including digital palpation and perineometry. | Behavioral: biofeedback training<br>* participants received biofeedback training for kegel exercises in the supervised group. the unsupervised group practised their Kegel exercises at home<br>|
| No Intervention: unsupervised group during study<br>No intervention. Participants to practice kegel exercises at home. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Incontinence severity index (ISI) tool | self-reported questionnaire describing frequency/severity of urinary incontinence. the higher the number, the higher the impact. | Week 0 | 
| Incontinence severity (ISI) index tool | self-reported questionnaire describing frequency/severity of urinary incontinence. the higher the number, the higher the impact. | Week 12 | 
| Pelvic floor assessment from physiotherapist | pelvic floor muscle strength | week 0 | 
| Pelvic floor assessment from physiotherapist | pelvic floor muscle strength | week 12 |