BACKGROUND: Pelvic girdle pain represents a group of musculoskeletal pain disorders associated with the sacroiliac joint and/or the surrounding musculoskeletal and ligamentous structures. Its physical management is still a serious challenge as it has been considered the primary cause of low back pain. OBJECTIVE: This review sought to determine the effectiveness of motor control exercises for two clinicallyrelevant measures; i.e., pain and disability, on patients with pelvic girdle pain of sacroiliac joint origin. METHODS: This review covered only randomized controlled studies. Online databases, such as PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane Library, were searched from January 1, 1990, to December 31, 2019. PEDro scale was used to assess the methodological quality of included studies, while Review Manager was employed to synthesize data in view of meta-analysis. The PRISMA guidelines were applied for this review. RESULTS: Twelve randomized controlled trials of moderate-to-high quality were included in this review. The studies involved 1407 patients with a mean age ranging from 25.5 to 42.1 years as well as intervention and follow-up durations from 1 week to 2 years. Motor control exercises alone for pelvic girdle pain of sacroiliac joint origin were not effective in terms of pain reduction (SMD = 0.29 [-0.64,1.22]) compared to control interventions whereas they were slightly effective in terms of disability reduction (SMD =-0.07 [-0.67, 0.53]) at short-term. The combination of motor control exercises with other musculoskeletal therapies, however, revealed to be more effective than control interventions in terms of pain reduction (SMD =-1.78 [-2.49, -1.07]; 95%CI) and lessened disability (SMD =-1.80 [-3.03, -0.56]; 95%CI) at short-term. CONCLUSION: Motor control exercises alone were not found to be effective in reducing pain at short-term. However, their combination with other musculoskeletal therapies revealed a significant and clinically-relevant decrease in pain and disability at short-term, especially in peripartum period.

Background: Hip and knee osteoarthritis are among the most prevalent and disabling conditions affecting mainly older adults, with a risk of undergoing a total hip or knee replacement for the end stage. Increasing recommendations of conservative treatments have been reported as the first-line strategy for the initial management of this condition. Objective: This review sought to investigate the effects of supervised exercises versus non-pharmacological conservative therapies to reduce pain and disability levels on patients with hip or knee osteoarthritis. Methods: Three databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, and ScienceDirect) were systematically searched for randomized-controlled trials published between 01-01-2001 and 31-10-2022. PEDro scale was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. The PRISMA guidelines were applied for this review. Results: Twelve randomized-controlled trials of moderate-to-high quality were included in this review. The studies involved 1,049 participants with a mean age (SD) of 64 (6) years old. The duration of the intervention and follow-up varied from 2 weeks to 16 months. Supervised exercises for hip or knee osteoarthritis were significantly less effective in terms of pain reduction (SMD=-0.40 [95%CI 0.16, 0.65], p=0.001) compared to home-based exercises (active musculoskeletal therapies), but not in terms of disability reduction (SMD=-0.04[95%CI -0.43, 0.36], p=0.86). There was a non-significant difference of supervised exercises compared to passive musculoskeletal therapies in terms of disability (SMD=0.21[95%CI -0.09, 0.50], p=0.17), or pain reduction (SMD=-0.19; [95%CI -0.57, 0.19], p=0.33). Conclusion: Supervised exercises were found to be less effective in reducing pain, but not in disability reduction when compared to home-based exercises.