No. 186-Conservative Management of Urinary Incontinence

To outline the evidence for conservative management options for treating urinary incontinence.

Conservative management options for treating urinary incontinence include behavioural changes, lifestyle modification, pelvic floor retraining, and use of mechanical devices.

To provide understanding of current available evidence concerning efficacy of conservative alternatives for managing urinary incontinence; to empower women to choose continence therapies that have benefit and that have minimal or no harm.

The Cochrane Library and Medline (1966 to 2005) were searched to find articles related to conservative management of incontinence. Review articles were appraised.

The quality of evidence is rated, and recommendations are made using the criteria described by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care.

Evidence for the efficacy of conservative management options for urinary incontinence is strong. These options can be advocated as primary interventions with minimal or no harm to women.