1. MIND OVER MATTER: Healthy Bowels, Healthy Bladder
Randomized, Controlled Trial Results
About this study:
122 women in
6 communities
Mind Over Matter (MOM) is a 3-session workshop series that teaches women skills for self-management of bladder and/or bowel leakage. In 2017, Dr. Heidi Brown and her research team at UW-Madison tested the workshop in 6 WI communities. 122 women were enrolled in the randomized, controlled trial. Half the women were in the treatment group, which meant they attended MOM before they completed follow-up surveys about their symptoms. The other half were in the control group, which meant they did not attend MOM before completing follow-up surveys.
Results:
The MOM workshop improves bladder and bowel leakage symptoms!
While most women in the treatment group had improved bladder and bowel symptoms 3 months after completing the MOM workshop, symptoms stayed the same for most women in the control group. We used 6 standardized questionnaires, and women in the treatment group improved on all 6!
3 month follow up: Urine Leakage
3 month follow up: Bowel Leakage
We asked women to describe how their accidental urine leakage was now compared to 3 months ago. 71% of treatment participants were improved, versus only 23% of women in the control group!
We asked women to describe how their accidental bowel leakage is now compared to 3 months ago. 55% of treatment participants were improved, versus only 27% in the control group!
Better
No Change
Worse
How does MOM work?
We can’t say for sure what components of MOM are most effective without more research, but we have some evidence that doing Kegels and improving self-efficacy (belief in oneself) has something to do with it!
This graph shows how many women in the treatment group (green line) versus the control group (red line) reported that they do Kegel exercises often or always. At the beginning of the study (baseline - BL), very few women did Kegel exercises. Right after the MOM workshop (1 MO), almost all women in the treatment group did Kegel exercises, and three months later, more than half were still doing them.