Correlation between the Severity of Urinary Incontinence with Postural Stability Indices and Disability Due to Low Back Pain in Women with Stress Urinary Incontinence: A Cross-sectional Study

Background and Objectives Stress urinary incontinence is a common disorder, especially in women. According to studies, low back pain is also highly prevalent in this group. Since postural stability has been reported to be associated with low back pain, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between the severity of stress incontinence and dynamic postural stability indices and functional disability due to low back pain in women with stress incontinence. Subjects and Methods This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted on 28 female participants in the age group of 20 to 55 years. It was found that 14 participants had mild stress incontinence and 14 the severe type. Dynamic postural stability and limit of stability tests were performed by the Biodex Balance System with empty and full bladders. The measurement of functional disability due to low back pain was performed using the Oswestry questionnaire. Results When the bladder was full, there was a significant difference in the overall and anterior-posterior stability indices between the two groups, while with an empty bladder, there was a difference in the overall and medial-lateral stability indices. The magnitude of functional disability due to low back pain was higher in the group with severe incontinence than in the mild type. Conclusion The existence of compensatory strategies during pelvic floor muscle dysfunction leads to different synergy patterns of trunk muscles when perturbations occur. Increased anterior-posterior postural stability index in women with urinary incontinence in the present study may be related to increased abdominal muscle activity, especially the external oblique muscles.