title: Impact of supervised physiotherapeutic pelvic floor exercises for treating female stress urinary incontinence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Urinary incontinence is a public health problem that affects more than 200 million people worldwide. Stress incontinence is the most prevalent type. Pelvic floor muscle exercises have been used for treating it, although there is no consensus regarding their application. The aim of this study was to compare the results from treating female stress urinary incontinence with pelvic floor muscle exercises with or without physiotherapist supervision.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a randomized, prospective, controlled trial in the Urogynecology and Vaginal Surgery Sector, Universidade Federal de São Paulo.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-four women were randomized to be treated for stress urinary incontinence with pelvic floor exercises for three consecutive months, into two groups: one with and the other without physiotherapist supervision. They were evaluated before and after treatment using a quality-of-life questionnaire, pad test, micturition diary and subjective evaluation. Descriptive analysis was used to evaluate the population. The homogeneity of the two groups was evaluated using the Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-squared tests. The success of the two groups after treatment was evaluated using the Wilcoxon test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The supervised group showed statistically greater improvement in the pad test, micturition diary and quality of life than did the control group. In the subjective evaluation, only 23.8% of the control group patients were satised with their treatment. In the supervised group, 66.8% of patients did not want any other treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Supervised pelvic floor muscle exercises presented better results in objective and subjective evaluations than did unsupervised exercises.
authors: Department of Gynecology, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. mizanetti@uol.com.br
authors: Míriam Raquel Diniz
authors: MR
authors: Zanetti
authors: Rodrigo de Aquino
authors: Rde A
authors: Castro
authors: Adriana Lyvio
authors: AL
authors: Rotta
authors: Patrícia Diniz Dos
authors: PD
authors: Santos
authors: Marair
authors: M
authors: Sartori
authors: Manoel João Batista Castello
authors: MJ
authors: Girão
mesh_terms: D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017773:Pelvic Floor; D011788:Quality of Life; D014550:Urinary Incontinence, Stress / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*