Application helps in the treatment of urinary incontinence

Urinary incontinence is a chronic problem that affects 45% of the female population over 40 years and 15% of the male population, according to the SBU (Brazilian Society of Urology),

The main form of treatment is pelvic floor exercises, usually guided by a physical therapist. Despite its easy access and low cost, this therapy usually has low adherence.

It was with this in mind that researchers from Unicamp (State University of Campinas), in partnership with the Eldorado Research Institute, created the Diário Saúde application, which guides patients to perform these exercises at home.

A study carried out from December 2020 to February 2022, during the social isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic, demonstrated the effectiveness of the technology. The results were recently presented at the 27th Paulista Congress of Gynecology and Obstetrics, in São Paulo.

“We had restricted access to health services, especially with conditions in which there was no risk to life, such as incontinence. During this period, women were unable to undergo treatment”, says gynecologist Cássia Raquel Teatin Juliato, professor from the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Unicamp, who participated in the work.

A total of 156 women attended at the José Aristodemo Pinotti Women’s Hospital (Caism-Unicamp), in Campinas, participated in the study. They used the app for a month, practicing the exercises at home, twice a day. At the end of the analysis, 52% of patients reported improvement in symptoms or “almost cure”, while 10.2% of respondents said they had been cured.

In addition, 74% of the participants performed the training frequently. “The study showed a very high adherence. It was a very promising result, considering that they did it alone at home, without a physical therapist”, comments Juliato.

How the app works

Although Diário Saúde was created to perform the exercises at home, an initial consultation with the physical therapist is necessary so that he can explain how they should be done.

At home, the patient is reminded by the app not to stop doing the practice. At the time of the session, she chooses the exercise and receives basic guidelines on the number of times the movements should be repeated, the duration of the practice and the intensity.

The great innovation of the program is that it guides through a visual and auditory guide. “It has a graph that shows the intensity and duration of the contraction. It also has a song that is rhythmic following the frequency of the exercise. Then, you follow the music and the graphic information to make the contractions of the perineal muscles”, explains the gynecologist .

At the end of the practice, the patient records how she is feeling. All this data is stored in the cloud and can be accessed, in graphic format, by the physical therapist. In this way, he can follow the evolution.

The application is not yet available for use by the population in hospitals and physiotherapy clinics as it needs to be licensed by a company.

Learn more about urinary incontinence

According to urologist Maria Claudia Bicudo, from SBU, incontinence occurs when the functioning mechanism of the bladder or urethra – the organs that carry out the storage and elimination of urine, respectively – stop working properly. This can occur for a variety of reasons, such as genetics, obesity, menopause, muscle injuries and pregnancy.

In addition to physical therapy, dietary adjustments are part of the treatment. In more complex cases, surgery can be performed, which aims to improve the strength and support of the canal. The choice of therapy depends on the type of incontinence and how much it affects the patient’s quality of life.