RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Pelvic belt is being used to alleviate the symptoms of lumbopelvic pain. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the immediate effects of a pelvic belt with a textured sacral pad in pregnant women with lumbopelvic pain. METHODS: Twenty-eight pregnant women participated in a randomized crossover study. Hip joint position sense, maximum hip flexion force, and perceived effort during the active straight leg raising test were measured in twenty-eight pregnant women with lumbopelvic pain. Outcomes were measured in three randomized conditions including no pelvic belt (control), with a pelvic belt, and while a sacral pad was used with the pelvic belt. Data were analyzed using a one-way repeated measures analysis of variance for each variable. RESULTS: Improvements in all study outcomes have been shown with a pelvic belt compared with the control condition. The addition of a textured sacral pad to the pelvic belt improved all study outcomes compared with the pelvic belt: hip joint position sense (p < 0.001; 95% confidence interval:1.3to2.3), perceived effort (p = 0.003; 95% confidence interval: 0.35 to 1.86), and maximum flexion force (p < 0.001; 95% confidence interval:2.77to6.47) in the active straight leg raising. CONCLUSION: Further improvements were noted with the addition of the textured pad for all outcome measures. This finding may inform new benefits in adding a textured sacral pad to pelvic compression belts.