MIND OVER MATTER Healthy Bowels Healthy Bladder Randomized

MIND OVER MATTER: Healthy Bowels, Healthy Bladder Randomized, Controlled Trial Results About this study: 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. 122 women in 6 communities 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: Bowel Leakage 3 month follow up: Urine 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! Treatment Group 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! Treatment [VAL Group UE]% [VAL UE]% [VAL UE]% Better No Change Worse [VAL UE]% Control Group [VAL UE]% How does MOM work? Percent of participants 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 [VALUE]% 100 treatment group (green line) versus the control 80 [VALUE]% group (red line) reported that they do Kegel 60 exercises often or always. At the beginning of the study (baseline - BL), very few women did Kegel 40 [VALUE]% exercises. Right after the MOM workshop (1 MO), 20 almost all women in the treatment group did [VALUE]% 0 Kegel exercises, and three months later, more BL 1 MO 3 MO than half were still doing them. Control Treatment