We have developed the app Tät® for the treatment of urinary leakage associated with coughing, physical exertion (particularly jumping) and sneezing.
The app is available in Swedish, English, Finnish, German and Spanish for iPhone and Android phones. It contains exercises programmes with graded levels of difficulty, a statistical function and an option to create various reminders.
We have examined the efficacy of treatment via the app in a study in which 123 women were assigned to treatment via the app or to a control group which did not have access to the app until after the first follow-up. We compared the results with regard to symptoms, quality of life and leakage before and after treatment. We also compared the results from the control group and the app group after three months of treatment. Nine out of ten women in the app group showed improvement, compared with two out of ten women in the control group. Women in the app group showed improvements with regard to degree of severity and quality of life and also experienced a decrease in the frequency of urinary leakage from an average of three times a day to once a day. The improvement in these variables was statistically significant in the app group, but not in the control group. The results were presented as an abstract at a scientific conference where it was awarded a prize for the best abstract in the category ”conservative treatment”. The complete results were published in September 2016 in the journal Neurourology and Urodynamics, see link. A health economic analysis concluded that the app was a new, cost-effective, first-line treatment option, see link. We have also conducted a long term follow-up (two years), see link and an interview-based study, see linc.
The study is registered with Clinical Trials www.clinicaltrials.gov (ID NCT01848938)