title: [The effect of an exercise program to strengthen pelvic floor muscles in multiparous women].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of an individualized and supervised exercise program for the pelvic floor muscles (PFM) in the postpartum period of multiparous women, and to verify the correlation between two methods used to assess PFM strength.
  
  
  METHODS
  An open clinical trial was performed with puerperal, multiparous women aged 18 to 35 years. The sample consisted of 23 puerperal women divided into two groups: Intervention Group (IG, n=11) and Control Group (CG, n=12). The puerperal women in IG participated in an eight-week PFM exercise program, twice a week. The puerperal women in CG did not receive any recommendations regarding exercise. PFM strength was assessed using digital vaginal palpation and a perineometer. The statistical analysis was performed using the following tests: Fisher's exact, χ(2), Student's t, Kolmogorov-Smirnov for two samples, and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Significance was defined as p<0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The participants' mean age was 24 ± 4.5 years in IG and 25.3 ± 4 years in CG (p=0.4). After the exercise program, a significant difference was found between the groups in both modalities of muscle strength assessment (p<0.001). The two muscle strength assessment methods showed a significant correlation in both assessments (1(st) assessment: r=0.889, p<0.001; 2(nd) assessment: r=0.925, p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The exercise program promoted a significant improvement in PFM strength. Good correlation was observed between digital vaginal palpation and a perineometer, which indicates that vaginal palpation can be used in clinical practice, since it is an inexpensive method that demonstrated significant correlation with an objective method, i.e. the use of a perioneometer.
authors: Departamento de Fisioterapia, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brasil.
authors: Thaís Rocha
authors: TR
authors: Assis
authors: Ana Claudia Antonio Maranhão
authors: AC
authors: Sá
authors: Waldemar Naves do
authors: WN
authors: Amaral
authors: Elicéia Marcia
authors: EM
authors: Batista
authors: Cibelle Kayenne Martins Roberto
authors: CK
authors: Formiga
authors: Délio Marques
authors: DM
authors: Conde
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053580:Muscle Strength; D010298:Parity; D017773:Pelvic Floor; D049590:Postpartum Period; D055815:Young Adult