Comparison of Kegel Exercises and Stabilization Exercises for Urinary Incontinence in Postpartum Females

Abstract

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is the spontaneous urine loss upon any effort or physical activity, or coughing or sneezing. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of Kegel exercises and stabilization exercises on urinary incontinence along with the improvement in the strength of pelvic floor. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study in which purposive sampling was done from postpartum females from Physiotherapy OPDs of Government hospitals of Faisalabad after meeting inclusion exclusion criteria. Thirty females with urinary incontinence were assigned into two groups: Group A and Group B. Group A received Kegel exercises for 4 weeks and group B received stabilization exercises for 4 weeks. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 16. Paired T test was used for inter-group analysis and independent T test was used for intra-group analysis. Results: The study concluded that the incidence of stress urinary incontinence increases with age as 36.7% participants of the study were from 51-60 years of age group. This study also proved that both kegel exercise and stabilization exercise were beneficial in treating stress urinary incontinence and showed significant difference with a p value of 0.012. Conclusions: It showed that stabilization exercises are a better approach in treating stress urinary incontinence by showing greater mean value of 2.533 ± 1.187. In the end, kegel exercises are primary treatment of stress urinary incontinence but when doing them alone, they showed lesser improvement with a mean value of 1.533 ± 0.833.