Assessment of knee and ankle proprioception during the third trimester of pregnancy and postpartum period among primiparous women: An observational longitudinal study

Background: Pregnant women experience falls, particularly in the third trimester. In this population, physiological changes, as well as ligament laxity, might influence joint proprioception and do not return to normal during the postpartum period. The prevalence of falls during pregnancy and postpartum periods imposes a need to study proprioception in pregnant women and the postpartum period. Materials and Method: An observational longitudinal study was conducted in June 2018 in outpatient clinic Chinchwad Pune. A total of 36 primiparous women were included in the study by using purposive sampling. The mean and standard deviation of the age was 25.92 (2.59). Proprioception was assessed for the knee joint and the ankle joint during the third trimester of pregnancy and 6th and 12th week postpartum. Outcomes included were the Joint Reposition Test for both knee and ankle joints using UTHSCSA Image Tool Software 3.0. Repeated-measure ANOVA was performed for the normally distributed data, and nonparametric test Friedman's test was performed for data that were not distributed normally. The data was statistically analyzed using the SPSS software version 26. The level of significance was set at 0.05, confidence intervals of 95% were used. Result: The result revealed significant (P < 0.05) improvement in both knee and ankle proprioception during the third trimester of pregnancy and postpartum period 6th and 12th week. Conclusion: Knee proprioception and ankle proprioception were found to improve significantly during the postpartum period 6th and 12th weeks compared to the third trimester of pregnancy but do not return to the prepregnancy state.