Dear Colleagues,

Pelvic health is an important topic for Public Health. Urinary incontinence (UI), fecal incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse are pelvic dysfunctions that affect more than 30% of the population. These conditions impair quality of life of people who suffer from them and also cause a significant socioeconomic impact to society.

With the progressive aging process, pelvic health issues tend to increase, whereas physical activity (PA) tends to reduce. The frailty process experienced by many older people can be associated with deterioration in bladder and bowel health as well as other common condition of aging, such as falls and cognitive impairment. However, the mechanisms of association have not been elucidated yet.

To maintain bladder and bowel function, PA plays an important role as a modifiable protective factor for pelvic dysfunctions, such as UI; adequate PA can prevent or even reduce UI. It is well known that sedentary behavior (SB) reduces functional performance and causes obesity, but the effects on pelvic health are less explored or understood. A causal pathway between low PA and development of urgency UI and overactive bladder has been suggested.

While numerous interventions to increase levels of PA and battle SB can be found in the scientific literature, understanding the relationship between PA, SB and bladder, and bowel and pelvic health is in its infancy. In addition, specific paramaters of these interventions are not totally clear and warrant futher research.

For this Special Issue, we invite researchers to submit their work on pelvic, bladder or bowel health and human movement (including SB-PA patterns, balance and falls, physical performance) across the lifespan. We are particularly interested in high-quality studies using qualitative, quantitative or mixed-methods approaches. We will accept manuscripts from different disciplines based on observational or intervention studies using primary or secondary data. Authors are invited to contribute novel work to be considered for publication in this Special Issue, including original articles, short communications, systematic reviews or meta-analyses.

Dr. Javier Jerez-Roig
Dr. Joanne Booth
Prof. Dr. María Giné-Garriga
Prof. Dr. Suzanne Hagen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• movement
• sedentary behavior
• motor activity
• balance
• physical functional performance
• physical activity
• pelvic floor
• incontinence
• urinary incontinence
• fecal incontinence

• Second Edition of Pelvic Health and Human Movement in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2 articles)