Improving Quality of Life among Women with Overactive Bladder Through Pelvic Floor Muscle Therapy with Electric Stimulation

摘要

This quality improvement project showed significant reduction in symptom bother and improvement in quality of life among a sample of women age 18 years and older diagnosed with overactive bladder (with or without urinary incontinence) who completed an eight-week supervised treatment regimen of pelvic floor muscle therapy with electric stimulation. Overactive bladder (OAB) and urinary incontinence (UI) are significant concerns for women of all ages, with symptoms often increasing with age and menopause (Tomaszewski, 2014). OAB with or without UI can impact a woman's daily quality of life and affect her socially and economically (Faiena et al., 2015). Evidence suggests OAB remains a highly underdiagnosed and undertreated syndrome (Goranitis et al., 2016). It is vital to be mindful that although OAB does not influence mortality, the complexity of symptoms can significantly impact quality of life (American Urological Association [AUA], 2014). Therefore, to effectively identify the needs of individuals with OAB, it is important to assess quality of life. The AUA (2014) recommends pelvic floor muscle therapy (PFMT) as a first-line treatment for OAB with UI.