Of the 4632 studies identified from the databases/registers, after removal of duplicates, screening, and assessment for eligibility, 78 studies were included for analysis in this scoping review. Although this review focuses on PFM contractions for inhibition of urge in individuals with urge urinary incontinence (UUI) or OAB, articles were also included in the review if they studied mixed urinary incontinence or if they studied other types of incontinence in addition to UUI.
Physiotherapists most commonly oversaw interventions in the included studies (32 of 78, 41%), and other healthcare professionals involved were nurses, doctors, continence advisors, and coaches/exercise instructors. PFM contractions were often compared to or accompanied by other interventions.
The reporting of exercise prescription parameters was incomplete and inconsistent. 34 studies looked specifically at exercise programs for UUI/OAB. For those studies that did report exercise prescription components such as patient position, contraction intensity, contraction duration, rest duration, number of repetitions, number of sets, exercise frequency and intervention duration, a wide variation of and among these components was reported.
Patient position was not reported by 15 of the 34 studies. Positions reported included supine, prone, sitting, standing, lithotomy, semi-squat, and performing PFM contractions during daily activities.
Contraction intensity was inconsistently reported and ranged from submaximal to maximal.
Contraction duration was either not reported or varied considerably between studies. The majority of articles described contractions as “sustained” or “held”.
Rest duration was reported in 24 studies, and ranged from 2-20 seconds.
The number of repetitions of PFM exercises was not reported by 6 studies. Among studies that reported it, values ranged from 6-80 reps.
The number of sets of PFM exercises was not reported by 14 studies. This value ranged between a single set and 5 sets. Certain studies defined sets as the number of times a given number of repetitions of the exercise was repeated throughout the day, while others referred to sets within a single exercise bout.
18 of the 34 studies did not report the frequency of their exercise interventions. However, among the studies reporting this exercise parameter, the frequency ranged between 2-7 days per week, with the most reported exercise frequency being 7 days per week or daily (7/16, 44%).
Intervention duration was not reported by 7 of the 34 studies and ranged between 6 weeks and 24 months in studies that reported this parameter.