Can pelvic floor muscle training improve quality of life in men with mild to moderate post-stroke and lower urinary tract symptoms? A randomised, controlled and single-blinded trial

BACKGROUND: Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) have a significant impact on quality of life (QoL) in post-stroke patients.

AIM: To evaluate the effect of pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) on QoL parameters in men with post-stroke LUTS.

DESIGN: Randomised, controlled and single-blinded trial.

SETTING: Outpatients, University Hospital.

POPULATION: Thirty-one men, median age 68 (interquartile range 60 - 74) years, with post-stroke LUTS were included. Thirty participants completed the study.

METHODS: The participants randomised to the treatment group were treated in a systematic, controlled and intensive PFMT programme over 3 months (12 weekly sessions). The participants randomised to the control group did not receive specific LUTS treatment. The effect was measured on the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the Nocturia Quality-of-Life (N-QoL) Questionnaire.

RESULTS: The results on SF-36 indicated significant improvement within pre- and post- test in the domains emotional role (median 77 to 100, P = 0.03) and vitality (median 65 to 70, P = 0.03) in the treatment group, but not the control group. There were no statistically significant differences between groups at pre-test, post-test or 6-month follow-up. The results on N-QoL indicated statistically significant differences between pre- and post-test in the bother/concern domain in both groups and in sleep/energy for the control group, but not the treatment group. There were no statistically significant differences between groups.

CONCLUSIONS: PFMT may improve the emotional health and vitality domains of QoL in men with mild to moderate post-stroke and LUTS; however the improvements in the treatment group were not significantly better than for the control group. PFMT did not improve nocturia-related QoL.

CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT: This study is the first to evaluate the effect of PFMT on QoL parameters in men with mild to moderate post-stroke and LUTS. The results indicate some short-term effect on SF-36 but none on N-QoL. However, further studies with larger sample sizes and with less restrictive inclusion and exclusion criteria are requested.