title: [Effect of Kegel exercise to prevent urinary and fecal incontinence in antenatal and postnatal women: systematic review].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to review the literature to determine whether intensive pelvic floor muscle training during pregnancy and after delivery could prevent urinary and fecal incontinence.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized controlled trials (RCT) of low-risk obstetric populations who had done Kegel exercise during pregnancy and after delivery met the inclusion criteria. Articles published between 1966 and 2012 from periodicals indexed in Ovid Medline, Embase, Scopus, KoreaMed, NDSL and other databases were selected, using the following keywords: 'Kegel, pelvic floor exercise'. The Cochrane's Risk of Bias was applied to assess the internal validity of the RCT. Fourteen selected studies were analyzed by meta-analysis using RevMan 5.1.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fourteen RCTs with high methodological quality, involving 6,454 women were included. They indicated that Kegel exercise significantly reduced the development of urinary and fecal incontinence from pregnancy to postpartum. Also, there was low clinical heterogeneity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is some evidence that for antenatal and postnatal women, Kegel exercise can prevent urinary and fecal incontinence. Therefore, a priority task is to develop standardized Kegel exercise programs for Korean pregnant and postpartum women and make efficient use of these programs.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Pai Chai University, Daejeon, Korea. shpark@pcu.ac.kr
authors.forename: Seong-Hi
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Chang-Bum
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Seon Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.forename: Bo Yeon
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005242:Fecal Incontinence / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000517:prevention & control*
keywords: Fecal incontinence; Meta-analysis; Pelvic floor muscle training; Urinary incontinence