Abstract
BackgroundPelvic girdle pain is a common problem during pregnancy and postpartum with significant personal and societal impact and costs. Studies examining the effectiveness of interventions for pelvic girdle pain measure different outcomes, making it difficult to pool data in meta-analysis in a meaningful and interpretable way to increase the certainty of effect measures. A consensus-based core outcome set for pelvic girdle pain can address this issue. As a first step in developing a core outcome set, it is essential to systematically examine the outcomes measured in existing studies.ObjectiveThe objective of this systematic review was to identify, examine and compare what outcomes are measured and reported, and how outcomes are measured, in intervention studies and systematic reviews of interventions for pelvic girdle pain and for lumbopelvic pain (which includes pelvic girdle pain).MethodsWe searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, PEDro and Embase from inception to the 11th May 2018. Two reviewers independently selected studies by title/abstract and by full text screening. Disagreement was resolved through discussion. Outcomes reported and their outcome measurement instruments were extracted and recorded by two reviewers independently. We assessed the quality of reporting with two independent reviewers. The outcomes were grouped into core domains using the OMERACT filter 2.0 framework.ResultsA total of 107 studies were included, including 33 studies on pelvic girdle pain and 74 studies on lumbopelvic pain. Forty-six outcomes were reported across all studies, with the highest amount (26/46) in the ‘life impact’ domain. ‘Pain’ was the most commonly reported outcome in both pelvic girdle pain and lumbopelvic pain studies. Studies used different instruments to measure the same outcomes, particularly for the outcomes pain, function, disability and quality of life.ConclusionsA wide variety of outcomes and outcome measurements are used in studies on pelvic girdle pain and lumbopelvic pain. The findings of this review will be included in a Delphi survey to reach consensus on a pelvic girdle pain - core outcome set. This core outcome set will allow for more effective comparison between future studies on pelvic girdle pain, allowing for more effective translation of findings to clinical practice.
Highlights
Pelvic girdle pain is a common problem during pregnancy and postpartum with significant personal and societal impact and costs
A wide variety of outcomes and outcome measurements are used in studies on pelvic girdle pain and lumbopelvic pain
The findings of this review will be included in a Delphi survey to reach consensus on a pelvic girdle pain - core outcome set
Summary
Pelvic girdle pain is a common problem during pregnancy and postpartum with significant personal and societal impact and costs. Pelvic Girdle Pain (PGP) has been defined as “pain between the posterior iliac crest and the gluteal fold, in the vicinity of the sacroiliac joints, and pain may radiate to the posterior thigh and can occur in conjunction with/ or separately in the symphysis” [1] (pp797). In the past, it has sometimes been considered a subgroup of low back pain (LBP); PGP includes pain at the pubic symphysis and is considered a different entity. PGP is one of the leading causes of sick leave during pregnancy [8–10], resulting in large economic costs to families and society
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