The role of mobile applications in the conservative management of stress urinary incontinence in women

Abstract

Urinary incontinence (UI) affecting over 300 million women worldwide, regardless of race and age, is considered one of the most important health issues in the 21st century. Due to the scale of the problem, the priority should be to provide therapy to as many patients as possible. Although effective conservative treatment measures for UI are available, they may not cater to all individuals who seek help. Sometimes a sense of embarrassment or a fear of stigmatization causes patients’ reluctance to report UI symptoms to their health provider and to join therapy. That forces to search for the new approach. In this field, use of mHealth technologies seems very promising. They became even more valuable during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the interest in telemedicine, as a means of providing care, while not being exposed to the risk of virus infection, further increased. The purpose of this work is a narrative review showing possibilities of using conservative measures of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in women, with particular emphasis on the use of mHealth technologies, as recent studies have shown that mobile application seem to be an effective tool in terms of improving SUI symptoms, satisfaction and adherence to therapy.

Keywords

• mhealth
• mobile apps
• incontinence
• pelvic floor muscle
• physiotherapy