Pelvic girdle pain in three pregnant women choosing chiropractic management: a pilot study using a respondent-generated instrument and chiropractor’s assessment tool

Author(s): C. G. Andrew, N. Eaton & G. Dorey - Pages: 12–24

Abstract

Pelvic gridle pain (PGP), as experienced by pregnant women, is poorly defined and understood. Despite an increasing body of research, there is still little in the literature that is accessible to healthcare practitioners regarding the management and treatment of this condition. There is also a lack of information about the use of specific tools to help define the problem, or to measure the outcomes in pregnant women with PGP. This paper begins the process of exploring the place of chiropractic treatment in the management of PGP experienced by pregnant women by documenting a small pilot study of use of the Chiropractor's Assessment and Treatment Tool (CATT), as used by chiropractors, alongside a validated questionnaire, the Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile 2 (MYMOP2), a patient-generated outcome measure. The treatment given by chiropractors and the self-reported outcomes of the three women undergoing chiropractic treatment are documented and compared. The results demonstrate that the MYMOP2 and CATT are useful tools for recording both women's experiences of and chiropractors' findings regarding the chiropractic treatment of of PGP in pregnant women. The use of the MYMOP2 for specifically recording women's experience of PGP, and relating these findings to the treatment, showed how the application of chiropractic treatment correlated positively with a reduction in MYMOP2 scores, where reduction equates to a patient-preceived improvement.

Keywords: chiropractic, pelvic gridle pain, pregnancy, respondent-generated tool.