Pelvic floor yoga is not superior to a general physical conditioning program for women with urinary incontinence
A 12-week pelvic floor yoga program is not superior to a physical conditioning program for women with daily urinary incontinence, according to a study published online August 27 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Alison J. Huang, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues, in a three-site study in California, examined the effects of a therapeutic pelvic floor yoga program compared with a nonspecific physical conditioning program on UI in ambulatory women aged 45 years or older.
The intervention consisted of a 12-week program of pelvic floor-specific Hatha yoga techniques (pelvic yoga) compared to simultaneous instruction and practice of general muscle stretching and strengthening (physical training).
Among the 240 women who reported daily urge, stress, or mixed urinary incontinence, the mean frequency of urinary incontinence was 3.4 episodes per day, including 1.9 urge and stress-type episodes, or 1.4 episodes per day, respectively.
The researchers found that the overall frequency of urinary incontinence decreased by an average of 2.3 and 1.9 episodes per day during a 12-week period of pelvic yoga and exercise training, respectively. There was a decrease of 1.2 and 1.0 episodes of urge urinary incontinence per day in the pelvic yoga group and exercise training group, respectively. There was no difference between the groups in the reduction in the frequency of stress urinary incontinence.
“As a pleiotropic behavioral intervention, yoga may offer greater therapeutic benefit in urinary urgency, an inherently more complex syndrome,” the authors write. “However, changes in type-specific urinary incontinence were only secondary outcomes and require further investigation.”
Further information:
Alison J. Huang et al, Effectiveness of a therapeutic pelvic yoga program compared with a physical conditioning program for urinary incontinence in women, Annals of Internal Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.7326/M23-3051
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