Effects of pelvic floor muscle training versus hypopressive abdominal gymnastics (HAG) on stress urinary incontinence in climacteric women: randomized clinical trial

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is recommended as first-line treatment for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in women (scientific evidence level 1). Currently, hypopressive abdominal gymnastics (HAG) has been used in clinical practice without evidence for this purpose. To verify the superiority of an experimental treatment in relation to a positive control (gold standard) for the treatment of SUI and PFM function in climacteric women. A non-inferiority clinical trial was conducted with 31 climacteric women with SUI who were sexually active. They were allocated into two groups: 16 in the PFMT group and 15 in the HAG group. Both groups received 26 sessions twice per week and individual care. All participants were assessed twice, at the beginning and at the end of interventions. The primary outcome was assessed using the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire - Short Form (ICIQ-SF) and the secondary were given by PFM function assessed via bidigital palpation. The methods used to analyze the results were the two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by the Tukey post-hoc test, when necessary. PFMT was better in improving SUI in the primary outcome (p=0.01). The groups showed no significant difference in force of contraction, time of sustained PFM, and fast and slow repetitions at the time of analysis. Regarding the symptoms of SUI, PFMT performed better than HAG.