Effectiveness of Hip Muscles Strengthening with Kegels Exercise in Treatment of Stress Urinary Incontinence among Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Author(s):

Diksha Ghadse* and Doss Prakash S

Purpose: Urinary incontinence is a debilitating condition with hygiene, social, and psychological consequences that greatly affect quality of life. However, there's a lack of research in the current literature on the combined effect of Kegel exercises and hip muscle strengthening as physiotherapy intervention for treating stress urinary incontinence in postmenopausal women.

Relevance: In recent decades, aging population has surpassed the younger generation due to improved resources and technology. Unfortunately, the significant issue of stress urinary incontinence in postmenopausal women has been overlooked, leading to growing global health burden and impacting numerous lives.

Participants: 70 females who attained menopause and were diagnosed with stress urinary incontinence in the age of 45-70 years.

Methods: In this randomized control trial conducted in tertiary hospitals and outreach programs, group A received a combination of hip muscle strengthening and Kegel exercises, while group B received Kegel exercises alone, following ACSM guidelines for 8 weeks. Their perfect scores were assessed before, after, and at a 1-month follow-up. Analysis: Data analyzed using SPSS 27.0, Student’s paired and unpaired t-test and repeated measures one-way ANOVA were used. 

 Results: Majority of group A was 15.85, which increased to 25.81 post-treatment and was 36.85 at follow-up, group B was 15.46, which was increased to 23.28 post-treatment and 33 at follow-up, which indicated that the group A score was better than group B and was extremely significant statistically (P=0.0001).  

Conclusion: Combining kegel exercises in different positions with hip muscle strengthening for postmenopausal women suffering from stress urinary incontinence significantly improved perfect score. Clinical implications: Strengthening hip muscles, including gluteus and hip adductor exercises, is recommended for managing stress urinary incontinence, alleviating symptoms and improving the perfect score.