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Pelvic muscle exercise for stress urinary incontinence in elderly women
T J Wells1, C A Brink, A C Diokno
1University of Rochester, School of Nursing, NY 14642.
Purpose:
To compare pelvic muscle exercise to pharmacologic treatment of stress urinary incontinence, the most common cause of urine leakage reported by community-living elderly women.
Subjects:
Convenience sample of 157 community-living women, aged 55 to 90 years, after completion of a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation.
Methods:
Eighty-two subjects were randomly assigned to the exercise protocol (with a 34% attrition rate). Pelvic muscle exercises were taught and monitored for 6 months. Phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride was given to the other group in a dose of 50 mg a day, increasing to 50 mg twice a day.
Main Results:
Treatment outcomes (subjective improvement, self recorded frequency of wetting) were equally satisfactory in both groups. The response to exercises was as good in 5 months as in 6. It was also as good when the minimum recommended number of exercises per day was 80 as when it was 125.
Conclusions:
Among those completing the protocol, pelvic exercises were beneficial in reducing stress incontinence, and the benefit was comparable to that produced by phenylpropanolamine.