Publication date: Aug 27, 2024

Pelvic floor yoga has been recommended as a complementary treatment strategy for urinary incontinence (UI) in women, but evidence of its efficacy is lacking. To evaluate the effects of a therapeutic pelvic floor yoga program versus a nonspecific physical conditioning program on UI in women. Randomized trial. (ClinicalTrials. gov: NCT03672461). Three study sites in California, United States. Ambulatory women aged 45 years or older reporting daily urgency-, stress-, or mixed-type UI. Twelve-week program of twice-weekly group instruction and once-weekly self-directed practice of pelvic floor-specific Hatha yoga techniques (pelvic yoga) versus equivalent-time instruction and practice of general skeletal muscle stretching and strengthening exercises (physical conditioning). Total and type-specific UI frequency assessed by 3-day voiding diaries. Among the 240 randomly assigned women (age range, 45 to 90 years), mean baseline UI frequency was 3. 4 episodes per day (SD, 2. 2), including 1. 9 urgency-type episodes per day (SD, 1. 9) and 1. 4 stress-type episodes per day (SD, 1. 7). Over a 12-week time period, total UI frequency (primary outcome) decreased by an average of 2. 3 episodes per day with pelvic yoga and 1. 9 episodes per day with physical conditioning (between-group difference of -0. 3 episodes per day [95% CI, -0. 7 to 0. 0]). Urgency-type UI frequency decreased by 1. 2 episodes per day in the pelvic yoga group and 1. 0 episode per day in the physical conditioning group (between-group difference of -0. 3 episodes per day [CI, -0. 5 to 0. 0]). Reductions in stress-type UI frequency did not differ between groups (-0. 1 episodes per day [CI, -0. 3 to 0. 3]). No comparison to no treatment or other clinical UI treatments; conversion to videoconference-based intervention instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. A 12-week pelvic yoga program was not superior to a general muscle stretching and strengthening program in reducing clinically important UI in midlife and older women with daily UI. National Institutes of Health.

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