The impact of a sacroiliac joint belt on function and pain using the active straight leg raise in pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain

Key points

1. 01A SIJ belt immediately improved the active straight leg raise score compared with no belt.
2. 02Pain and disability scores improved over 4 weeks of daily belt use.
3. 0382% of women reported they were improved on the global impression of improvement scale.
4. 04Belts were considered safe and effective in this group, but this was an observational study with no control group.
5. 05The immediate belt effect on leg-raise function did not predict 4-week pain outcomes.

How it was conducted

Design

Prospective observational cohort at an academic center

Participants

63 pregnant women aged 18 and over in the 2nd or 3rd trimester with posterior pelvic girdle pain and active straight leg raise score 2 to 10

Intervention

4 weeks of daily Serola sacroiliac joint belt wear with a wear diary

Main outcomes

Active straight leg raise (ASLR), numeric rating scale (NRS) pain, Pelvic Girdle Questionnaire (PGQ), and Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGII)

What they found

• Immediate belted ASLR was -2.70 points lower than unbelted on multivariable analysis (p<0.001).
• At 4 weeks ASLR improved both with the belt (mean difference -0.99, p=0.001) and without the belt (mean difference -1.94, p<0.001), with the non-belted decline being greater (mean difference -0.96, p=0.02).
• Current NRS pain decreased by -0.94 (p<0.001), and usual NRS and PGQ also improved.
• Interactions between ASLR and belt use were not significant.
• 82% of women reported improvement on the PGII.

Limitations

• Observational cohort with no control or comparison group, so improvement cannot be firmly attributed to the belt.
• Small single-center sample of 63 women, limiting generalizability.
• Some natural change in pregnancy-related pain over time cannot be separated from any belt effect.
• The active straight leg raise score did not predict 4-week pain outcomes, so it cannot identify who will benefit.

Why it matters

For patients

If you have pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain, a sacroiliac joint belt may ease pain and make daily movement easier, and it appears safe to try.

For clinicians

A SIJ belt is a reasonable, safe addition to multimodal care for posterior pregnancy-related PGP, but the active straight leg raise should not be used to predict who will respond.

For readers

This single-group study suggests benefit from a SIJ belt but lacks a control group, so the size of the true effect remains uncertain.