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Electroacupuncture for postmenopausal women with stress urinary incontinence: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial

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Abstract

Purpose

The efficacy and safety of electroacupuncture was compared to those of sham electroacupuncture for the treatment of postmenopausal women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI).

Methods

This study was a secondary analysis of a multicenter, randomized controlled trial that recruited 504 women with SUI and randomized 349 postmenopausal women to receive 18 treatment sessions of electroacupuncture or sham electroacupuncture over 6 weeks, with a 24-week follow-up assessment. Treatment response was defined as a 50% or greater reduction in urine leakage, as measured by a 1-h pad test at week 6.

Results

Of the 349 randomized women, 332 completed the study. The response rate was 61.0% in the electroacupuncture group compared to 18.9% in the sham electroacupuncture group (difference 42.5%; 95% confidence interval, 33.3–51.7; p < 0.001). After 6 weeks of treatment, the mean 72-h urinary incontinence episode frequency, proportion of participants with at least a 50% decrease in mean 72-h incontinence episode frequency, participant-reported SUI severity, International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form scores, and participants’ self-evaluation of therapeutic effects improved in both groups, with significant between-group differences. Treatment-related adverse events occurred in 2.1% of women during the 6-week treatment.

Conclusion

Electroacupuncture may effectively and safely relieve urinary incontinence symptoms and improve quality of life in postmenopausal women with SUI.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the volunteers for their participation. We thank Medjaden Bioscience Limited for editorial assistance.

Funding

This study was supported by the program of the “12th Five-year” National Science and Technology Pillar Program (2012BAI24B01) by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Weiming Wang and Yan Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Guang’an Men Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, No.5 Beixiange St., Xicheng District, Beijing, China

    Weiming Wang, Shaoxin Sun, Baoyan Liu, Jing Zhou & Zhishun Liu

  2. Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yan Liu

  3. Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Shaanxi Province Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xi’an, China

    Tongsheng Su

Authors
  1. Weiming Wang
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  2. Yan Liu
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  3. Shaoxin Sun
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  4. Baoyan Liu
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  5. Tongsheng Su
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  6. Jing Zhou
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  7. Zhishun Liu
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Contributions

WW: project development, data collection, and manuscript writing. YL: data analysis, data management, and manuscript writing. SS: project development, data collection and management. BL: data management and manuscript revision. TS: project development, data collection and management. JZ: project development and data collection. ZL: project development, data analysis, and critical review of the manuscript. All authors approve the final version of this manuscript to be published and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhishun Liu.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

Research involving human/animal participants

The study protocol was approved by independent ethics committees at all participating sites.

Informed consent

The participants’ informed consent was obtained from each patient before the performance of any study-specific procedures.

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Wang, W., Liu, Y., Sun, S. et al. Electroacupuncture for postmenopausal women with stress urinary incontinence: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial. World J Urol 37, 1421–1427 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-018-2521-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-018-2521-2

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