Ingenuity for enabling the habituation of pelvic floor muscle training.
Akiko Mori, Masayoshi Kakiuchi, Emi Matsumoto and 1 others
PMID 28878449WHAT IT FOUND
Women in a program with education, therapist-led practice, follow-up, home training, and self-recording reported better skill and incontinence scores, but no control means PFMT alone cannot be shown to work.
Key findings
01ICIQ-SF scores improved significantly from 3.2 to 1.6 after three months.
02Self-rated PFMT skill acquisition improved significantly from 8.1 to 9.0 after three months.
03Twelve participants performed PFMT at home 6 to 7 days a week, averaging 23.6 times daily, and more daily practice correlated with understanding (r=0.70) and skill (r=0.58).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only 13 women were studied, and they were selected from 18 applicants who were already interested in urinary incontinence and pelvic floor training. There was no control group, no randomisation, and no blinding, so changes after three months cannot be separated from time, attention, or other factors. The program included several components at once, so the contribution of any single part cannot be separated. Most outcomes were self-reported or mailed questionnaires, and no objective pelvic floor muscle measurement was taken. The paper did not name a primary outcome, and follow-up was only at three months.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that pelvic floor muscle training alone caused the improvements. The women also received lectures, used a pelvic floor model, practiced with physical therapists, had follow-up, and recorded home training, and there was no control group.