How well do published randomized controlled trials on pelvic floor muscle training interventions for urinary incontinence describe the details of the intervention? A review

Abstract

Context: Pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is strongly recommended for the management of mild to moderate urinary incontinence (UI) in women, yet the specific elements of PFMT that lead to improvement have not been identified. This gap in knowledge may be related, at least in part, to the lack of detail provided on intervention parameters reported in randomized controlled trials (RCTs)Objective: Using three different instruments: the Consensus on Exercise Reporting Template (CERT), the template for intervention description and replication (TIDieR) checklist, and the Consensus on Therapeutic Exercise Training (CONTENT) scale, the purpose of this study was to assess the completeness of exercise reporting among moderate to high quality RCTs on PFMT for women with UI.Methods: Two raters independently scored all 65 RCTs (n = 65) retrieved by the most up-to-date Cochrane Systematic Review on PFMT for women with UI, and only those of moderate to high quality (>6 on the PEDro scale) were retained. Eighteen articles met the inclusion criteria and were scored by two independent reviewers using the CERT, TIDieR, and CONTENT instruments.The completeness of intervention reporting was evaluated using descriptive statistics. Results: Over half of the items on each instrument were reported less than 50% of the time. Overall, completeness of exercise reporting was 31% (5.8/16 ± 2.4) on CERT, 47% (5.6/12 ± 1.5) on TIDieR, and 46% (4.1/9 ± 1) on CONTENT. The least frequently reported items were the provider of the intervention, the equipment used, the tailoring of exercises, the rationale behind the intervention, and adherence to the intervention.Conclusion: PFMT parameters are not adequately reported in the primary RCTs that currently guide clinical practice. K E Y W O R D SCERT, CONTENT, exercise reporting, pelvic floor muscle training, TIDieR, urinary incontinence

Completeness of exercise reporting among randomized controlled trials on pelvic floor muscle training for women with pelvic organ prolapse: A systematic review

“…However, item 9 of the TIDieR, item 14b, and 15 of the CERT were often not reported. Charette et al 12 found a similar percentage of adherence to those items. Exercise progression descriptors, assessed with item 7b of the CERT, were lacking in the majority of RCTs (96.2%).…”

“… 8 Over the years, several studies in different physical therapy fields revealed evident gaps and clear deficiencies in reporting on exercise‐based interventions. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 …”

Improving the Physical Quality of Students by Prescription Teaching Mode

“…The data used for quantitative analysis in this study meets the requirements of surveying statistics. 4 2. Interviews and surveys of the target population.…”

Pelvic floor muscle training programme in pregnant Nepalese women—a feasibility study

“…One strength of this feasibility study is that we reported the PFMT program according to the Consensus on Exercise Reporting Template (CERT) (266). A recent review highlighted that PFMT parameters were not adequately or sufficiently reported in published RCTs, which currently guide clinical practice (267). The least frequently reported items were the provider of the intervention, the equipment used, the tailoring of the exercises, the rationale behind the intervention, and adherence to the intervention.…”

“…The least frequently reported items were the provider of the intervention, the equipment used, the tailoring of the exercises, the rationale behind the intervention, and adherence to the intervention. These factors, considered to be the biggest barriers towards PFMT adherence, were not taken into account by any of the studies included in the above-mentioned review (267). By describing our treatment program in detail, we aimed to encourage high implementation of the PFMT.…”