Effects of Acupuncture on Urinary Incontinence in Premenopausal Women : Preliminary Study

Abstract

Objectives:The purposes of this preliminary study was to examine the feasibility of recruiting women into a clinical trial designed to examine the effects of acupuncture in treating urinary incontinence (UI) in premenopausal women with delivery history and the feasibility of performing the study procedures. We also tried to determine if there was preliminary evidence to suggest that acupuncture may be effective in reducing UI and improving disease-specific quality of life.

Methods:This study was a pragmatic randomized clinical trial. Subjects between the ages of 20 and 49 years were randomly assigned to a treatment(n=11) or control group(n=11) and analyzed. Both groups were supposed to do Kegel exercise at home during 4 weeks and acupuncture was applied to the treatment group twice a week(8 sessions) additionally. Subjects performed 1 hour pad test and completed a 3-day urination diary, international consultation on incontinence modular questionnaire(ICIQ), and incontinence - quality of life(I-QOL) at base line and 5 weeks.

Results: Both group showed improvement in 1 hour pad test and the reducing amount of UI was significantly larger in treatment group(p=0.0182). The significant improvements in ICIQ and I-QOL were also observed in treatment group and sustained until the follow-up measurement at 16 weeks. Any adverse reaction related to acupuncture did not happen.

Conclusions: It was feasible to recruit subjects and perform the study procedures. The positive results of this study support the requirement for additional research investigating the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of UI in women.