Effect of Therapeutic Yoga on the Quality of Life of Women with Urinary Incontinence and Pelvic Organ Prolapse
Keywords:
urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, therapeutic yoga, pelvic floor, quality of lifeAbstract
Introduction: Urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse are pelvic floor dysfunctions with high prevalence in adult women.
Objective: To evaluate the effect of a therapeutic yoga program on the health-related quality of life of women with stress urinary incontinence and grade I-II pelvic organ prolapse.
Methods: A pre-experimental pretest-posttest study was conducted with 46 women, evaluating a 12-week therapeutic yoga program. The main variables measured were impact on quality of life, perineal muscle function, severity of urinary incontinence, and baseline muscle tone.
Results: Most of the participants were middle-aged women. The main risk factors included the use of tight girdles, overweight, and constipation, while the most common obstetric factors were multiparity, vaginal delivery, and episiotomy. After the intervention, significant improvements (p < 0.000) were recorded in muscle strength, incontinence severity, and quality of life. However, baseline hypotonia persisted, especially in women over 60 years of age.
Conclusions: Therapeutic yoga is an effective intervention for improving health-related quality of life, pelvic floor muscle strength, and reducing the severity of urinary incontinence in women with stress urinary incontinence and grade I-II pelvic organ prolapse. However, its effectiveness in correcting baseline hypotonia may be limited in older and multiparous women, suggesting the appropriateness of combined therapeutic approaches in these cases.
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Copyright (c) 2026 María Alejandra Hernández Aguilar, Neysa Margarita Pérez Rodríguez , Haymeé Rodríguez Lara , Antonio Herrera Cuesta , Tania Mercedes Tanús Rodríguez
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