The role of abdominal muscle training in combination with pelvic floor muscle training to treat female urinary incontinence - a pilot 12-week study.

Introduction: Current literature is inconclusive as to whether transversus abdominis (TrA) training can provide an additional benefit to pelvic floor muscle (PFM) training in female stress urinary incontinence (SUI). We designed a study to investigate the effect of PFM and TrA training on incontinence parameters.

Material and methods: 60 females with SUI were randomised to PFM training alone or PFM plus TrA training. They all attended 12 weekly training sessions by a single physical therapist and completed relevant questionnaires at baseline and study completion.

Results: Both interventions reduced the number of incontinence episodes and improved quality of life (QoL) and sexual function. Women on PFM+TrA training reduced the number of used pads per day (p = 0.007), improved the QoL (p = 0.031) and the sexual lubrication score (p = 0.04), and reported better satisfaction rates compared to PFM alone (66.7% versus 43.3%). A subgroup analysis reported that women with pure SUI benefit more from combined PFM+TrA training compared to PFM alone (p = 0.04).

Conclusions: TrA add-on to PFM training was similar to PFM training alone in the reduction of incontinence episodes but was superior in reducing the number of pads needed, which suggests a beneficial effect on the severity of incontinence.