Using a Smartphone Application to Strengthen Pelvic Floor and Manage Symptomatology of Female Track and Field Athletes: A Randomized Controlled Study
Featured Application: The proposed smartphone application guides female track and field athletes to perform an effective exercise program to improve pelvic floor symptoms and strength, while they are supervised by health professionals. Despite the high prevalence of pelvic floor (PF) dysfunctions in...
| Autores: | , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2024 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/389353 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/389353 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85213211116 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Telerehabilitation Exercise therapy Pelvic floor disorders Sports |
| Sumario: | Featured Application: The proposed smartphone application guides female track and field athletes to perform an effective exercise program to improve pelvic floor symptoms and strength, while they are supervised by health professionals. Despite the high prevalence of pelvic floor (PF) dysfunctions in female athletes, help-seeking is low due to embarrassment and disinformation. This study evaluated the effects of a 6-week exercise program guided by a specific app, with and without intravaginal biofeedback on the PF symptoms, strength, and sonographic measures of female athletes. Compliance with the program was evaluated. Thirty-nine athletes with PF symptoms used the app with different functionalities: experimental group 1 (n = 13) (EG1: exercises, PF information, and physiotherapists contact); experimental group 2 (n = 14) (EG2: exercises with biofeedback, PF information, and physiotherapists contact); and the control group (n = 12) (CG: PF information, and physiotherapists contact). Before and after the 6 weeks, PF symptoms, strength with the Oxford scale, and sonographic measures were evaluated. EG1 and EG2 improved strength (p = 0.028 and p = 0.001, respectively) and incontinence urinary symptoms (p = 0.041 and p = 0.002, respectively) over the baseline, without between-group differences (p > 0.05). No significant differences were observed in sonography (p > 0.05). Regarding compliance, 84.6 and 71.4% of athletes from EG1 and EG2 completed the program twice per week or more. A 6-week PF exercise program guided by the app improved PF symptoms and strength of female athletes and ensured high compliance with the program but was insufficient to improve sonography. |
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