Evaluating Telehealth Efficacy in Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation for Stress Urinary Incontinence

A recent randomized trial found that telehealth-delivered pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) produced a clinically meaningful reduction in stress urinary incontinence (SUI) severity compared with an education-only teleconsultation. This study challenges the assumption that remote care is inherently inferior for skill-based pelvic floor rehabilitation and highlights a scalable alternative for patients who cannot attend clinic-based sessions.

The single-center randomized controlled trial enrolled 50 women with SUI (26 assigned to telehealth PFMT, 24 to an educational teleconsultation) and followed participants over 12 weeks. There was a statistically and clinically significant improvement on the ICIQ-SF (mean 6.2 ± 2.7 in the PFMT arm vs 12.5 ± 3.2 in the education arm; p < 0.001), an absolute difference of ~6.3 points. The PFMT arm also had fewer leakage episodes (p = 0.024) and reduced pad use (p = 0.001); attendance at scheduled online sessions was similar across groups and home-exercise adherence averaged 18 sets per month in the PFMT arm.

Secondary endpoints favored telehealth PFMT, with improved patient satisfaction, self-efficacy, and quality-of-life domains. These measures strengthen the case that remote delivery can meet patients’ priorities while preserving clinical effect, although they remain secondary outcomes and warrant confirmation in larger samples.

These findings support scalable telehealth PFMT programs but require replication and longer-term follow-up to confirm durability of benefit and generalizability across diverse populations.