Effect of abdominal versus pelvic floor muscle exercises in obese Egyptian women with mild stress urinary incontinence: A randomised controlled trial

Publication date: June 2013 Source:Hong Kong Physiotherapy Journal, Volume 31, Issue 1 Author(s): Dalia M. Kamel , Ali A. Thabet , Sayed A. Tantawy , Mohamed M. Radwan The aim of this study was to compare the benefits of a 12-week abdominal and pelvic floor muscle strength training programme for the treatment of mild stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in obese women. Thirty obese female patients with mild SUI were randomly divided into two groups: the abdominal exercise (ABD) group and the pelvic floor exercise (PF) group. The participants were evaluated for vaginal pressure, leak point pressure (LPP) and waist–hip ratio (WHR) before, immediately after and at a 12-week follow-up after the termination of treatment. The ABD group showed a significant increase in vaginal pressure immediately after the intervention and at follow-up (p < 0.001), while the PF group showed no significant change in this variable. The ABD group also showed a significant increase in LPP after 12 weeks of treatment (p = 0.008), while the PF group demonstrated no significant change in the same variable (p = 0.030). At 24 weeks, the LPP remained significantly different from the baseline only for the ABD group (p = 0.005). The results showed that the 12-week abdominal muscle strength training programme is superior to pelvic floor strength training for the treatment of mild SUI in obese patients.
Source: Hong Kong Physiotherapy Journal - Category: Physiotherapy Source Type: research