The hypothesis is that after practicing Women's gymnastics, a method of body exercises that works on posture, breathing, and body awareness along with training pelvic floor muscles, women will show an improvement in their knowledge of the pelvic region and the action of the pelvic floor muscles, what would decrease urine loss during physical activities, besides improving their quality of life, compared to those in control group. The aim of study is to verify the best approach applied remotely and synchronously to promote quality of life and improvement of urinary incontinence in women over 60 years of age: Women's gymnastics performed in groups or women's gymnastics performed individually, compared to a control group.

A pilot, experimental, randomized and controlled study. Sample calculation was performed with the GPower program, finding a number of 21 women per group. The volunteers who agreed to participate, signed the consent form and answered a sociodemographic data questionnaire, the ICIQ-sf and Kings Health Questionnaire (KHQ). They were randomized into three groups: Group women's gymnastics (GG), individual women's gymnastics (IG) and control group (CG). They participated in five remote meetings, lasting one hour, once a week, for five weeks. In each meeting they perform exercises of the Women's Gymnastics, a exercise method that focus on pelvic floor muscle exercises and their integration with breathing, posture and whole body movements. After five weeks, women answered the ICIQ-sf and KHQ questionnaires, in order to compare with the first evaluation.

A total of 52 women agreed to participate in the research and were randomized into the three groups. At the end of the five weeks of training, 32 women finished the study and answered the questionnaires (n=11 in GG; n=12 in IG and n=9 in CG). In terms of treatment adhering, there was a loss of 36.46% of the total sample at the end of five weeks and the analysis of the results was made only with those who finished the research. Mean age was 66 years, mean BMI 26.9 kg/m² (overweight) and 91% of the sample have already gested. Women from individual Women's Gymnastics group showed a decrease in the mean of ICIQ-sf score from 6 at baseline to 4.25 after five weeks, the best result. There was no significant difference in the domains of the KHQ that addressed quality of life and UI.

A synchronous remote exercise program, focusing on body awareness and pelvic floor muscle training was able to promote health for women over 60 years of age, with its benefits demonstrated by decreasing the means of the ICIQ-sf score.

The remote modality showed difficulty in participants adherence and the individual modality promoted better results

Continence 2S2 (2022) 100478
DOI: 10.1016/j.cont.2022.100478