PURPOSE: to compare women's quality of life (QoL) before and after physical therapy treatment for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). METHODS: an uncontrolled clinical trial of 26 women, who had mainly complaints of SUI. Post-menopausal women with overactive bladder, cystocele >grade II and previous surgical/conservative treatments were excluded from the study. The physiotherapy treatment relied on 12 individual pelvic floor exercises assisted by electromyographyc-biofeedback sessions. A total of 200 contractions were carried out, divided in phasic (quick) and tonic (slow). The tool used to evaluate QoL was the King's Health Questionnaire (KHQ), before and after the treatment. RESULTS: there was a decrease in the urinary symptoms, particularly in urinary frequency, nocturia, urgency and urinary incontinence. Regarding the QoL, there was a significant improvement in the following domain scores: general health perception (49.0±24.0 versus 26.9±15.7; p=0.0015), incontinence impact (78.2±28.2 versus 32.1±30.5; p=0.001), activity limitation (75.0±28.2 versus 13.5±22.6; p<0.001), physical limitation (72.4±29.4 versus 15.4±24.5; p<0.001), social limitations (38.3±28.6 versus 6.4±14.5; p<0.001), emotions (59.0±33.8 versus 14.1±24.7; p=0.0001, sleep/energy (34.0±23.8 versus 6.4±16.4; p=0.001) and severity measures (66.9±19.6 versus 22.3±24.2; p<0.001), except for personal relationships (60.5±33.9 versus 41.7±16.7; p=0.0679). CONCLUSIONS: there was an improvement in several aspects of women's QoL treated by physiotherapy, when evaluated with a specific tool, the KHQ.
Urinary incontinence, stress; Urinary incontinence, stress; Physical therapy modalities; Quality of life; Pelvic floor; Muscle contraction
