• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.81-89
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• 2022

Purpose : Kegel exercises reported that it is effective in managing stress-related or complex urinary incontinence through contraction and relaxation of the pelvic floor muscles. In many previous studies, it was confirmed that Kegel exercise is involved in respiration as well as urinary system diseases. However, there is a lack of research on the effect of pelvic setting when performing Kegel exercises. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effect on maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV) and abdominal muscle thickness through Kegel exercise after lumbar-pelvic motor control using pressure biofeedback unit (PBU). Methods : The subjects of this study were 10 healthy female students in their 20s. Subjects measured MVV with a spirometer. In hooklying, external oblique, internal oblique, and transverse abdominis of the dominant hand were measured using ultrasound. The measured value was an average of three times. After one week of intervention, measurements were made in the same manner. Before Kegel exercise, pelvic setting training was performed using PBU. In hooklying, PBU was placed in the waist and set to 40 mmHg, and it was adjusted to 60 mmHg through pelvic muscle contraction. For Kegel exercise, the pelvis was first set using PBU, and then the pelvic floor muscles were contracted for 8 seconds and relaxed for 8 seconds, 10 times, 1 set, and 3 sets. Results : In MVV, a significant difference was confirmed after exercise than before exercise (p<.05). There was also a significant difference in abdominal muscle thickness before and after exercise (p<.05). Conclusion : Based on the results of this study, Kegel exercise using PBU had an effect on MVV and abdominal muscle thickness. However, since this study was conducted without a control group as a preliminary study, additional research should be conducted to supplement this.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.466-473
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• 2007

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify effects of pelvic floor muscle exercise on sexual function and to present basic information on promoting sexual function for employed middle-aged women. Method: Data were collected from July to September, 2005 from a sample of 25 conveniently selected middle-aged working women from B city. For personal reasons, 10 dropped out, leaving 15 women who were treated with the exercise for 6 weeks. Outcome measures on sexual function were assessed by a self-report questionnaire based on the Female Sexual Function Index(Rosen et al, 2000 and translated by Kim, 2004). Cronbach ${\alpha}'s $ for the two studies were .82 and .96 respectively and for this study, .81. Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to analyze the data. Results: The mean score for sexual function was 21.42(range 2-36). There were significant improvements in total sexual function, and 4 sub-scales of sexual function, sexual arousal, vaginal lubrication, orgasm, and coital pain. No significant improvements in sexual desire or sexual satisfaction were found. Conclusion: The small sample means findings must be interpreted with caution, but do suggest that pelvic floor muscle exercise could be an effective exercise for improvement of sexual function.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.17-27
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• 2018

Background: This study investigated the effects of pelvic floor stabilization exercise of pain, disfunction, psychosocial, electromyography (EMG) activity on the lower back pain with postpartum. Methods: The study included 20 postpartum women who were randomly assigned to a sling exercise group (SEG, n=10) or a general physical therapy group (GPTG, n=10). Outcomes were assessed using to lower back pain with postpartum the quadruple visual analogue scale (QVAS), the Korean version of the Oswestry disability index (KODI), the fear avoidance belief questionnaire (FABQ), the inventory of functional status after childbirth (IFSAC), the edinburgh postnatal depression scale-Korean (EPDS-K), and trunk muscle activity before and after a 4-week exercise intervention. Statistical analysis were performed using a mean, standard deviation, crosstab test, paired t-test, independent t-test. Kolmogorove-Smirnov test was used for test of normality. Results: Compared to the GPTG, the SEG showed significant improvement in the QVAS, KODI, FABQ, IFSAC, and EPDK-K scores (p<.05) after 4 weeks. Conclusion: Postpartum pelvic strengthening exercise proved to have a positive effect.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.45-64
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the pelvic tilting exercise, pelvic tilting exercises with floor walking training, pelvic tilting exercises with treadmill walking training on quantitative gait function in patients with hemiplegia. Thirty patients with hemiplegia due to cerebrovascular disease participated in this study. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of pelvic tilting exercise group, pelvic tilting exercise with floor walking training group and pelvic tilting exercises with treadmill walking training group. The effects of each therapeutic method were evaluated by measurements of gait velocity, cadence, stride length, step length, base of support and foot angle using ink-foot prints. Data were analyzed statistically using paired t-test and one-way ANOVA. The results of this research are as followings : 1. After treatment, it turned out that pelvic tilting exercises with treadmill walking training has the most effect on gait velocity, cadence, stride length, step length and foot angle, which has significant difference in statistics (p<0.05). 2. Quantification of the gait velocity, cadence, both stride length and step length demonstrated a significant increase (p<0.05) after treatment in all groups when compared with values measured before treatment. The base of support and foot angle in affected side decreased significantly (p<0.05) after treatment in all groups when compared with values measured before treatment. 3. The lumbosacral angle noted a significant increase (p<0.05) after treatment in all groups, however, an ANOVA analysis did not reveal any differences between groups.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.696-703
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• 2008

Purpose: To Perform a randomized comparative study investigating the effects of Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise(PME) and Magnetic Stimulation Therapy(MST) and to identified the problems in each of PME & MST Method: Forty-nine patients with mild stress incontinence were randomly assigned to either of two treatment groups (24 patients in the PME group and 25 in the MST group). The PME group had a video exercising program for 40 times every day during 6 weeks. The MST group was treated with BioCon-2000TM, 2times/ week for six weeks. Pre-test and post-test were performed by Prineometer, 1-hour pad test. and Jackson's BFLUTS questionnaire of Jackson. Collected data were analysed using SAS 9.1 by frequency, Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z. Chi Square-test, t-test, Fisher Exact probability test, Paired t-test, and Wilcoxon's rank sum test. Results: In comparison between before and after PME and MST, statistically significant difference was observed in maximal vaginal pressure, duration of vaginal contraction, amount of urine, and symptom of urination. In the comparison of the effectiveness between PME & MST, only the maximal of vaginal pressure (Z=2.58, p= .010) was significantly different. Conclusion: The factor more effective in the MST group than in the PME group was high compliance.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.420-430
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• 2013

Purpose: The aim of this study was to review the literature to determine whether intensive pelvic floor muscle training during pregnancy and after delivery could prevent urinary and fecal incontinence. Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCT) of low-risk obstetric populations who had done Kegel exercise during pregnancy and after delivery met the inclusion criteria. Articles published between 1966 and 2012 from periodicals indexed in Ovid Medline, Embase, Scopus, KoreaMed, NDSL and other databases were selected, using the following keywords: 'Kegel, pelvic floor exercise'. The Cochrane's Risk of Bias was applied to assess the internal validity of the RCT. Fourteen selected studies were analyzed by meta-analysis using RevMan 5.1. Results: Fourteen RCTs with high methodological quality, involving 6,454 women were included. They indicated that Kegel exercise significantly reduced the development of urinary and fecal incontinence from pregnancy to postpartum. Also, there was low clinical heterogeneity. Conclusion: There is some evidence that for antenatal and postnatal women, Kegel exercise can prevent urinary and fecal incontinence. Therefore, a priority task is to develop standardized Kegel exercise programs for Korean pregnant and postpartum women and make efficient use of these programs.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 2023

Purpose : This study was conducted to determine the effect of intervention using a smartphone application on abdominal muscle thickness and maximum voluntary ventilation when conducting pelvic floor muscle exercise (PFME). Methods : This study was performed on 14 subjects. They were divided into two groups; PFME using smartphone application (n=7), common PFME (n=7). Both of group executed the exercise 5 times a week for 1 weeks. Abdominal muscle thickness was measured using ultrasound. Maximum voluntary ventilation was measured using a spirometer. The smartphone application used the paid version of Kegel trainer. This material was analyzed by the paired t-test to compare differences on each group and the independent t-test to compare between the two groups. Results : The PFME group using the smartphone application showed a significant increase in the transverse abdominis and internal oblique muscles (p<.05). The common PFME group showed a significant increase in the internal oblique muscle (p<.05). There was no significant difference in variation of the muscle thickness between the two groups (p>.05). The PFME group using the smartphone application showed a significant increase in the maximal voluntary ventilation (p<.05). There was no significant difference in variation of the maximal voluntary ventilation between the two groups (p>.05). Conclusion : As a results of this study, PFME using a smartphone application seems to induce voluntary participation of subjects and maintain continuity against time constraints. As a result, it is thought that using a smartphone application when performing PFME is efficient and convenient in terms of research method. However, this study is difficult to generalize due to the small number of subjects and short intervention period. Therefore, additional research should be conducted by modifying and supplementing these limitations.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.35-42
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• 2014

Background: The purpose of this study was to effect of the manual therapy and pelvic floor muscle exercise interventions in patient with acute lumbar sprain. Based on this, proceed to present an effective physical treatments. Methods: Subject was 55 year old female patient with acute lumbar sprain. Subject was damaged, wash in the morning. Subject was hoping to return to work and Activity daily living (ADL) without pain. I proceed in order screening, evaluation, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment planning and intervention, re-screening. To solving problem, was conducted in parallel to a manual therapy and therapeutic exercise. Results: To investigate changes in body functions and activities was measured, Visual analog scale (VAS) and Oswestry disability index (ODI), changes in posture, maintain in posture, 10m walk test. The improved results were compared before and three weeks after mediation interventions. Conclusions: Frequency manual therapy and pelvic floor muscle exercise is thought to be an efficient way of patients with acute lumbar sprain.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.1476-1484
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• 2005

Purpose. The purposes of this study were to examine the effectiveness of a behavioral intervention program combining pelvic floor muscle exercise with bladder training for urinary incontinence and also to conduct follow-up assessment after self-training. Methods. This study was conducted using a non-equivalent control group, pretest-posttest design. The subjects were 60 middle-aged women(control group, n=30; intervention group, n=30) who experienced an episode of urinary incontinence at least once a week. The program was run over a 4 week period (once a week) and composed of urinary incontinence education, pelvic floor muscle exercise, and bladder training. Results. Overall, there was a significant difference in urinary incontinence symptoms and psycho-social well-being related to urinary incontinence between the treatment and control group. Of the variables, weekly leakage frequencies, leakage amounts on each occasion, leakage index, frequencies of nocturia, and quality of life were significantly different between the groups. Follow-up assessment (9th week) indicated that overall incontinence symptoms and psycho-social well-being were significantly different between the posttest and follow-up assessments. Most variables of incontinence symptoms and psycho-social well-being were significantly improved at follow-up assessment versus posttest. Conclusions. The program was voerall effective in terms of relieving symptoms and improving psych-social well-being related to urinary incontinence, and this effect continued after a 4-weeks self-training period. In the respect that this is a community-based application study, the results can be meaningful and applicable.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.209-214
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• 2020

Objective: Using biofeedback in instructing pelvic floor muscle (PFM) activation is a great method to provide information on muscle contraction. This study aimed to determine the immediate effectiveness of a mobile game-based instruction with an extracorporeal biofeedback device (EBD) to improve PFM contraction in healthy subjects. Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Sixteen healthy subjects (4 men and 12 nulliparous women; age, 31±5 years) were enrolled. The subjects were randomly categorized into two groups, those who were to receive instructions on how to contract the PFM by using the EBD (n=7) and those who were to undergo a transabdominal ultrasonography (TAUS; n=9) with biofeedback. PFM function was measured as the displacement (mm) of PFM elevation by using the TAUS before and after the instructions in each group. Results: The EBD and TAUS groups showed a significant increase in the displacement of PFM elevation after the instructions from 5.93±4.03 mm to 7.62±3.77 mm and from 5.27±3.39 mm to 7.47±2.79 mm, respectively (p<0.05). No significant differences were found between the two groups. Conclusions: The results of this study indicated that instructions for PFM contraction using the EBD and TAUS showed an immediate effect; however, no significant difference in effectiveness was observed between the two instruction methods. Therefore, not only can the TAUS method be used but the EBD method can also be used as a PFM instruction method for noninvasive procedures. However, further studies are needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of training and exercise on larger sample sizes that includes patient populations with PFM dysfunction.