Effects of Physical Therapy on Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Among Women; A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Pelvic floor dysfunction is the inability to relax and integrate the pelvic muscles appropriately. Constipation, bladder/bowel incontinence, and frequent bladder urges are the common symptoms. Objective: To determine the effects of physical therapy on pelvic floor dysfunction among women. Methods: It was a randomized controlled trial conducted between February to December 2021. About 72 patients were included using convenient sampling and they were equally divided into an experimental group receiving pelvic floor physical therapy and a control group receiving routine care. The woman aged between 18 to 60 years having pelvic floor dysfunction were included in the trial. Patients with pelvic organ prolapse more than stage II, urinary or vaginal tract infections and inability to understand or follow instructions were excluded. The assessment was made at baseline and after 4th week of intervention. Variables like age, body mass index and parity were presented as mean and standard deviation. The normality of the data was assessed using the Shapiro-Wilk test. The difference between pre and post-treatment readings was calculated using paired sample t-test for this parametric data. Statistical significance was set at p≤0.05. Results: The demographics including age, body mass index and parity were found to be 49.31 (12.43%), 25.71(4.56%) and 2.6(0.81%) in the pelvic floor physical therapy group and 51.23 (9.37%), 26.33(5.32%) and 2.2(93%) in the control group respectively, without any significant difference (p-value>0.05). After treatment at the 4th-week assessment, peak perineometer values (cmH2O) were found to be 6.4(5.8) in the experimental group versus 10.3(6.7) in the control group, pelvic floor distress inventory short form 27.43(17.6) versus 42.8(31.8) and short form of pelvic floor impact questionnaire 9.86(4.39) versus 16.87(6.78), with a significant difference in favor of physical therapy group (p-value>0.05). Conclusion: The study concluded that pelvic floor physical therapy is significantly better as compared to the control group for relieving pelvic floor dysfunction including its control, coordination and distress.