ACUTE EFFECTS OF LOCAL VIBRATION OR VISUAL FEEDBACK ON THE PELVIC FLOOR MUSCLE TRAINING IN JAPANESE HEALTHY ADULTS: CROSS-OVER STUDY

R. Mizuta¹, N. Maeda¹, M. Komiya¹, T. Tashiro¹, H. Ishihara¹, M. Yoshimi¹, S. Oda¹, Y. Urabe¹

¹Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

Background: Pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is often challenging for individuals because of difficulty in feeling the pelvic floor muscle (PFM) contraction. Therefore, an easier way to perform PFMT should be devised. A previous study in which PFMT was performed using a branded cushion to provide local vibration stimulation and visual feedback showed possibility of an improvement in the activity of the PFM (Hirota et al., 2021). However, that study only examined males, and the effects need to be examined in a larger number of people by expanding the scope to include females.

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of combining PFMT with local vibration stimulation and visual feedback provided by a branded cushion in increasing PFM activity in healthy males and females.

Methods: Twenty healthy adults (10 males, 10 females) were included in this study. All the participants performed PFMT under three conditions using a branded cushion (kyuttoburu, Dream Inc., Nagoya, Japan): vibration stimulation, visual feedback, and a control. PFM activity of the midline of the perineum at two points was recorded as the root mean square (RMS) of the mean amplitude measured with surface electromyography method (P-EMG plus, Oisaka Electronic Equipment Ltd., Hiroshima, Japan). The muscle activity ratio was obtained by calculating the maximum voluntary contraction of the PFM in pre- and post- measurement. For comparison of the RMS between pre- and post-training tasks in each condition, t-test or Wilcoxon signed rank-sum test was performed. Comparison of the muscle activity ratio (post/pre) among the three conditions was performed using the Kruskal–Wallis and Bonferroni post-hoc tests. The statistical significance level was set at 0.05.

Results: When comparing the activity of the PFM pre and post training task, there was a significant increase of 62.69% in the local vibration stimulation condition and of 41.44% in the visual feedback condition (vibration stimulation: pre 23.05 ± 11.81 mv, post 37.50 ± 19.00 mv, p < 0.01, effect size r = 0.79; visual feedback: pre 23.53 ± 14.74 mv, post 33.28 ± 22.12 mv, p < 0.01, effect size r = 0.60). In the control condition, no significant changes in PFM activity were detected pre and post exercise task (p = 0.904). When comparing the conditions, the muscle activity ratio was significantly higher in the vibration stimulation and visual feedback conditions than in the control condition (p < 0.01).

Conclusions: PFMT accompanied by vibration stimulation or visual feedback could immediately raise PFM muscle activity. We believe this study contributes to improving PFMT efficiency by setting up more suitable PFMT methods. In the future, we plan to investigate the long-term effects of PFMT with vibration stimulation and visual feedback and to determine whether the same effects can be expected in subjects with urinary incontinence symptoms.

Implications: These exercise interventions for the PFM with a cushion providing vibration stimulation and visual feedback may be effective methods to stimulate the PFM and make it more contractile.

Funding acknowledgements: We have no funding acknowledgement in this study.

Keywords:
Pelvic floor muscle
Muscle activity
Urinary incontinence

Topics:
Pelvic, sexual and reproductive health
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Musculoskeletal

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Hiroshima university

Committee: Hiroshima University Committee on Ethics in Research

Ethics number: E-2005-1