Perceptions of Physiotherapeutic Action in Men’s Health: Integrative Review

Abstract

Introduction: The physiotherapy area does not have a specialty directed to men’s health, however, the contributions of this area are contextualized within its management specialties in the areas of prevention, promotion and rehabilitation.

Objective: The objective of this research was to identify through the literature, in which area in men’s health the physical therapy performance has contributed.

Methodology: The methodology was the integrative review of articles in the Portuguese language, without delimitation of the period of publication, in the SciELO, LILACS and CAPES journals portal, with the synthetic descriptors: “Men’s Health”, “Physiotherapy”, “Health” and “Man”.

Results: A total of 764 documents were found, but only three articles were selected. The resulting articles were linked to Pelvic Floor Muscles (MAP), attributed to Urinary Incontinence and Radical Prostatectomy. And the main conducts of physical therapy in these issues are exercises for the pelvic floor, biofeedback and electrostimulation.

Conclusions: According to the results of this research, it was possible to identify that the role of physical therapy in men’s health focuses on care of the pelvic region. Although the number of articles selected in this review was reduced, they showed that the physical therapy performance is effective and has a positive impact regarding the professional and patient.