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Cues to action: Pelvic floor muscle exercise compliance in women with stress urinary incontinence
Author(s) -
Gallo Mimi L.,
Staskin David R.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
neurourology and urodynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.918
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1520-6777
pISSN - 0733-2467
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1520-6777(1997)16:3<167::aid-nau6>3.0.co;2-c
Subject(s) - medicine , biofeedback , pelvic floor muscle , urinary incontinence , pelvic floor , physical therapy , compliance (psychology) , stress incontinence , physical medicine and rehabilitation , surgery , psychology , social psychology
Pelvic floor muscle exercises are recommended as an initial treatment to women with stress urinary incontinence. This treatment is often unsuccessful because of patient noncompliance. A post‐test, experimental control group design was used to examine Pender's (1992) concept of an external cue to action, an audiocassette tape, to enhance patient compliance to pelvic floor exercises. Eighty‐six women with urodynamically evaluated stress urinary incontinence participated through a Pelvic Floor Exercise Unit at a large teaching hospital. Patients received biofeedback training and written information to reinforce pelvic floor muscle exercises during a 45‐min appointment with a nurse. Patients were instructed to perform the exercises for 10 min twice daily. Forty‐three woman randomly assigned to an experimental group received an audiocassette tape. Four to 6 weeks later all patients completed a researcher‐developed questionnare that was validity and reliability tested assessing pelvic floor exercise compliance. The 43 patients (100%) who received the audiocassette tape reported compliance with “routine” exercises. Twenty‐two of 34 patients (65%) who did not receive the tape were compliant ( P = 0.0003). Thirty‐four of 41 patients (83%) who received the tape reported exercise compliance twice a day, while 4 of 34 patients (12%) in the control group were similarly compliant ( P = 0.0000). The findings suggest adding an audiocassette tape to a pelvic floor exercise program enhances patient compliance for incontinent women compared to verbal and written instruction combined with biofeedback. Neurourol. Urodynam. 16:167–177, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.