Biomedical subjects

T J Wells

Publications and source records attributed to T J Wells.

39 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Digital measurement of pelvic muscle strength in childbearing women.

Fourteen primigravidas were evaluated at 32 and 36 weeks antepartum (AP) and 6 weeks postpartum (PP) to test the reliability and validity of a digital measure of pelvic muscle strength using urine control as the criterion. Interrater reliabilities ranged from .67 to .77. Convergent validity was shown by negative correlations between clinical muscle scores and time required to interrupt urine flow at 32 weeks AP (r = -.41), 36 weeks AP (r = -.64) and 6 weeks PP (r = -.71). Validity was also demonstrated in a pattern of lower scores in women who had urine loss during coughing or reported incontinence as compared with those who did not. Women who had cesarean births had higher postpartum pelvic muscle scores with progressively lower scores demonstrated by those who gave birth vaginally without laceration, with episiotomy, and with laceration, F(3, 10) = 5.40, p = .02.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A digital test for pelvic muscle strength in older women with urinary incontinence.

A digital test of pelvic muscle strength for evaluation of a pelvic muscle exercise (PME) program was developed with a sample of 338 incontinent women living at home. Factors of perceived pressure, alteration of the vertical plane, and time were combined to form a 7-point scale ranging from 0 to 4. Test-retest for the anteroposterior score was r = .65, p less than .01 with interrater reliability, r = .91, p less than .01. Relationship to other variables and further development of the measure are discussed.

Age Factors↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A digital test for pelvic muscle strength in women with urinary incontinence.

This article reports further experience with a Version 2 digital test performed on 208 community-residing women, 25 to 87 years old. Test-retest (n = 208) and interrater reliability (n = 36) scores for pressure, displacement, and duration were r = .54, .51, and .53 and r = .67, .73, and .55, respectively. Interrater reliability percentage agreement figures were exact for 94% of the women on pressure and 67% on displacement. With duration permitted to vary by 1 second, agreement was 75%. Validity was tested using vaginal electromyography scores with correlation coefficients ranging from .37 to .63. A weak but significant correlation was found between the digital score and the stand-up test pad gain (r = -.12). No significant relationship was found between the digital test and a history of being able to stop the urine stream or other leakage measures. To address limitations in Version 2, a third version of the digital scale is proposed.

Adult↗