Trial reportBMJ open2025
Antenatal pelvic floor muscle exercise intervention led by midwives in England to reduce postnatal urinary incontinence: APPEAL feasibility and pilot randomised controlled cluster trial.
Trial report in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Barriers to Adherence to Remote Pelvic Floor Muscle Training Among Postpartum Women: A Qualitative Study Guided by the COM-B Model.Patient preference and adherence · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo assess the feasibility of an intervention of midwifery support for antenatal pelvic floor muscle exercises (PFME) to prevent postnatal urinary incontinence (UI).
designFeasibility and pilot cluster randomised controlled trial. Clusters were community midwifery teams.
settingCommunity maternity antenatal care.
participantsOne hundred seventy-five women; 186 midwives.
interventionMidwifery training and resources for midwives and women to support antenatal PFME. Control clusters continued standard care. OUTCOMES: Women reporting: that their midwife explained how to do PFME, PFME adherence and postpartum UI. Midwives reporting: pre-post-training PFME confidence, intervention acceptability. Fidelity of training delivery and implementation.
resultsNinety-five midwives in intervention clusters; 91 midwives in control clusters. Of 998 women sent questionnaires, 175 responded: 15.8% in intervention, 16.4% in control clusters. Women's characteristics in both trial arms were similar and characteristics of respondents and non-respondents were similar. Sixty-five percent (95% CI 56.9% to 72.4%) of women in intervention clusters reported their midwife explained how to do PFME vs 38% (95% CI 24.6% to 51.2%) in control clusters. Fifty percent (95% CI 24.1% to 77.1%) of women in intervention clusters vs 38% (95% CI 12.4% to 67.1%) in control clusters reported doing enough PFME to potentially prevent UI. Fourty-four percent (95% CI 32.0% to 56.1%) of women in intervention clusters reported UI vs 54% (95% CI 42.2% to 65.8%) in control clusters.Intervention training was delivered with fidelity and received positively. Midwives reported improvements in PFME confidence/knowledge (median increase of at least 1 point on a 0-4 scale for each of eight questions). Midwives (26%) most frequently reported insufficient time as an implementation barrier.
conclusionsThis pilot trial produced consistent new findings that training and resourcing midwives to teach and support pregnant women to undertake PFME is acceptable and feasible for women and midwives. It increased the number of women who are informed about PFME, with potential to improve PFME adherence and reduce postpartum UI. Recent changes to the National Health Service perinatal pelvic healthcare means a full trial is not possible. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN10833250.
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