Efetividade de um manual de exercícios domiciliares na promoção da continência urinária durante a gestação: um ensaio clínico aleatorizado pragmático - Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia

Efetividade de um manual de exercícios domiciliares na promoção da continência urinária durante a gestação: um ensaio clínico aleatorizado pragmático |

PURPOSE:

To evaluate the effectiveness of an illustrated home exercise guide targeting the pelvic floor muscles in promoting urinary continence during pregnancy.

METHODS:

A randomized clinical trial was performed with 87 participants, evaluated six times during pregnancy and divided into three groups: Gsup, supervised; Gobs, not supervised, and Gref, women who did not perform the home exercises program. A miction diary and perineometry were used to evaluate urinary incontinence (primary outcome) and pelvic floor muscle strength (secondary outcome), respectively. The Kruskal-Wallis test with post hoc Dunn's and chi-square and Z tests with Bonferroni correction were used for continuous variables and proportions, respectively, with the level of significance set at 5%.

RESULTS:

At the end of the study, 6.9% of pregnant women in the Gsup and Gobs had urinary incontinence, while 96.6% of Gref women were incontinent. Regarding pelvic floor muscle function, Gsup and Gobs had mean contractions of 10 and 8.9 cmH₂O, respectively, while Gref had a value of 4.7 cmH₂O. Both results were significant.

CONCLUSION:

An illustrated home exercise guide targeting the pelvic floor muscles is effective in promoting urinary continence during pregnancy, even without permanent supervision.