App-based pelvic floor muscle training in pregnant and postnatal women: A prospective cohort study exploring factors associated with prevention and improvement of urinary incontinence.

Background and Aims

Pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is recommended for continent pregnant women and postnatal women experiencing urinary incontinence (UI). The app Tät® has been developed for the treatment of stress UI with a focus on PFMT. The aim of this study was to investigate factors associated with the improvement of incontinence symptoms and retained continence in pregnant and postnatal women who used the app.

Methods

A prospective cohort study was carried out based on user questionnaires from the app Tät®. We included pregnant and postnatal women who answered the inclusion questionnaire between June 19, 2019 and September 19, 2020. The questionnaire included questions about the frequency and amount of leakage, the impact that UI has on everyday life, and experienced improvements at follow-up. We analyzed factors associated with improvement and retained continence using logistic regression.

Results

We included 10,307 pregnant and 13,670 postnatal women, and 44% of the pregnant women and 52% of the postnatal women were incontinent. A total of 3680 women were included in the follow-up analysis, and 52% of the pregnant incontinent women and 73% of the postnatal incontinent women experienced improvement. Pregnant women who performed PFMT and used the app at least once per week had increased odds of improvement (odds ratio [OR]: 1.83, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01-3.29 and OR: 3.38, 95% CI: 1.94-5.90, respectively) compared to those who performed no training and had no app usage. Postnatal women who used the app at least once per week and had more severe incontinence had increased odds of improvement (OR: 4.26, 95% CI: 2.37-7.64 and OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.05-1.16, respectively).

Conclusions

The app Tät® is widely used by pregnant and postnatal women in Sweden for the prevention and treatment of UI. Majority of the women with incontinence experienced improvement after using the app. Regular PFMT and app use seemed to be important factors for experiencing improvement.

Informations de copyright

© 2022 The Authors. Health Science Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The logos Tät and Tät.nu are registered as trademarks by The Swedish Patent and Registration office for eContinence AB, a Swedish e‐health company founded in July 2021, with the aim to maintain, spread, commercialize, and further develop the apps created within the research project Tät.nu (eContinence.se). Ina Asklund is a co‐founder and shareholder of eContinence AB. eContinence AB had no involvement in study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing of the report; or the decision to submit the report for publication.