Effects of Pelvic Floor Rehab Protocol on Urinary Incontinence

May 18, 2026 updated by: Riphah International University

Effects of Pregnancy Specific Pelvic Floor Rehab Protocol on Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence is a serious health issue that deeply affects a person's daily life and overall well-being. The global prevalence of UI is between 5 to 69% during a woman's lifetime, with higher prevalence in older age groups. The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to compare the effects of pregnancy specific pelvic floor rehab protocol with the standard protocol on urinary incontinence. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups. The results of this trial would be helpful in this way that how Pregnancy specific pelvic floor rehab protocol can provide support for pregnant ladies with urinary incontinence and improve health outcomes.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The International Continence Society defines urinary incontinence as the 'unintentional or involuntary leakage of urine'. Urinary incontinence is a serious health issue that deeply affects a person's daily life and overall well-being. It can be physically exhausting and emotionally overwhelming, often leading to embarrassment, loss of confidence, and feelings of helplessness. Many people dealing with it also struggle with anxiety and depression, as it limits their freedom and makes even simple daily tasks feel challenging. Urinary incontinence (UI) is common during pregnancy with prevalence rates of 31% in nulliparous women and 42% in parous women. The global prevalence of UI is between 5 to 69% during a woman's lifetime, with higher prevalence in older age groups. . Urinary incontinence during pregnancy affects women's physical comfort, emotional well-being, and quality of life, yet it remains under-identified and undertreated in standard antenatal care. Although pelvic floor exercises are widely recommended, most existing programs are not adapted to the unique demands of pregnancy. A structured, pregnancy-specific pelvic floor rehabilitation protocol can address these needs more effectively by offering trimester-based guidance, functional training, and education. . This pregnancy-specific pelvic floor rehabilitation protocol follows a progressive 4-week plan focused on pelvic floor muscle training, core activation, and functional strengthening. Exercises such as Kegels, abdominal drawing-in, bridging, and clamshells are performed in various positions with controlled breathing. Each 30-minute session, conducted twice weekly, includes a structured warm-up, weekly targeted exercises (Week 1-4), and a cool-down phase for relaxation, flexibility, and bladder/postural education. Participants will be randomly assigned through convenient sampling method to each groups. Ethical considerations will be completely taken and data will be analyzed through SPSS version 26. This study aims to evaluate the impact of such a protocol and provide evidence to support its integration into routine prenatal care, potentially improving maternal outcomes and long-term recovery.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

48

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Pakistan
    • Islamabad
      • Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan, 44000
        • Riphah International Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant women aged 18-35 yrs.
  • Score ≥1 on stress or urge subscale of the Questionnaire for Incontinence Diagnosis
  • No participation in a structured pelvic floor rehabilitation program within the last six months.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • • Patients with High-risk pregnancy.

    • Known neurological disorders.
    • History of pelvic surgery.
    • ACOG Contraindications for Exercise

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Pregnancy Specific Pelvic floor Rehab Protocol (PSPFR) Group
This pregnancy-specific pelvic floor rehabilitation protocol follows a progressive 4-week plan focused on pelvic floor muscle training, core activation, and functional strengthening. Exercises such as Kegels, abdominal drawing-in, bridging, and clamshells are performed in various positions with controlled breathing. Each 30-minute session, conducted twice weekly, includes a structured warm-up, weekly targeted exercises (Week 1-4), and a cool-down phase for relaxation, flexibility, and bladder/postural education.
Other: Pregnancy Specific Pelvic floor rehab protocol (PSPFR) Group
This pregnancy-specific pelvic floor rehabilitation protocol follows a progressive 4-week plan focused on pelvic floor muscle training, core activation, and functional strengthening. Exercises such as Kegels, abdominal drawing-in, bridging, and clamshells are performed in various positions with controlled breathing. Each 30-minute session, conducted twice weekly, includes a structured warm-up, weekly targeted exercises (Week 1-4), and a cool-down phase for relaxation, flexibility, and bladder/postural education. The instructions of the supervised exercises would be Hold for 2 s in 3 repetitions, 5 seconds rest, 1 minute of rest between each exercise & 2 sets each. The record of each session will be written in diaries.
Active Comparator: Standard Pelvic floor Rehab Protocol Group
This group receives standard protocol for strengthening of pelvic floor to prevent urinary incontinence.
Other: Standard Protocol for Pelvic floor strengthening
in this group, standard exercises used for strengthening of pelvic floor to prevent urinary incontinence will be implemented.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Questionnaire for Incontinence Diagnosis
Time Frame: 4 weeks
The Questionnaire for Incontinence Diagnosis is a self-reported screening tool used to identify the presence and type of urinary incontinence, such as stress, urge, or mixed incontinence. It consists of structured questions related to symptom triggers, frequency, and leakage patterns. Each item scores 0 (None of the time), 1 (Rarely), 2 (Once in a while), 3 (Often), 4 (Most of the time) or 5 (All of the time). Responses to items 1, 2 and 3 are summed for the Stress score; and responses to items 4, 5, and 6 are summed for the Urge score.
4 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Incontinence Severity Index
Time Frame: 4 weeks
The ISI is a quick, two-question tool that assesses the frequency and amount of urine leakage. Scores range from 0 to 12, indicating severity from none to very severe. It is simple to administer and useful for tracking symptom changes over time.
4 weeks
International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire (ICIQ-UI-SF)
Time Frame: 4 weeks
The ICIQ-UI-SF is a validated self-reported questionnaire that assesses the frequency, severity, and impact of urinary incontinence. Scores range from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating greater symptom severity and quality-of-life impact. It is widely used to quantify the patient-reported burden of incontinence.
4 weeks
Incontinence Impact Questionnaire
Time Frame: 4 weeks
The IIQ-7 assesses the psychosocial and functional impact of urinary incontinence on daily life, including physical activity, travel, and emotional well-being. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores reflecting a greater negative impact. It is a useful tool for evaluating quality of life related to incontinence.
4 weeks
Patient Global Impression of Improvement Scale
Time Frame: 4 weeks
The PGI-I is a single-item scale that captures the patient's overall perception of symptom improvement after treatment. It reflects subjective satisfaction with the intervention. The 7-point scale ranges from 1 (very much better) to 7 (very much worse), with lower scores indicating greater improvement.
4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Riphah International University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Dr Zahra Ijaz, Riphah International University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 1, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

May 7, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

July 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 18, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 18, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

May 22, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 22, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 18, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Attiya Azhar

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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