Prognostic factors and treatment outcomes for female urinary incontinence rehabilitation

Urinary incontinence (UI) is the involuntary loss of urine. It is highly prevalent in women and has a great biopsychosocial impact. Rehabilitation is established as the first-line treatment, although its use has not been protocolized.

To identify which personal risk factors and type of treatment applied are statistically related to patient improvement.

Retrospective cohort study.

Retrospective cohort study of female patients diagnosed with urinary incontinence who attended the Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation Clinic of the Río Hortega University Hospital, receiving rehabilitation treatment during the year 2021. The minimum follow-up period was 12 weeks. The presence or absence of improvement was evaluated according to seven objective and subjective variables, and improvement was established as positive evolution in at least five of the seven variables.

A total of 114 women with urinary incontinence were analyzed. The most frequent types of incontinence were stress (53%) and mixed (36%). The most important risk factors and associated pathology were episiotomy (68%), repeated urinary tract infections (61%), and constipation (40.9%). None of these factors showed a statistically significant relationship with patient improvement. The most used rehabilitative treatment was kinesitherapy+biofeedback (51%) which showed a statistically significant relationship with the improvement of these patients (P=.037) together with biofeedback+posterior tibial nerve electrostimulation (PTNS) (P=.044).

Biofeedback combined with kinesitherapy or PTNS are established as the most effective rehabilitative procedures.