POPPY: Pelvic Organ Prolapse Physiotherapy

A new research project has commenced in 2008, called The POPPY Trial: A Multi-Centre Randomised Controlled Trial of a Pelvic Floor Muscle Training Intervention for Women with Pelvic Organ Prolapse.

Professor Mary Galea, Ms Helena Frawley and Dr Margaret Sherburn were awarded a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Australia to conduct the Australian arm of the multi-national, multi-centre trial in Australia. The trial is registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) and details can be found at: http://www.ANZCTR.org.au/ACTRN12608000113358.aspx. 

Recruitment will take place at 4 hospitals in Australia:

• The Royal Women’s Hospital, Carlton, Victoria
• Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, Victoria
• The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woodville South, South Australia
• St George Hospital, Kogarah, New South Wales

This trial has received ethics approval from all the above Hospital Ethics Committees, and is poised to commence. The study is also recruiting in the UK and New Zealand. The UK website with details regarding the POPPY trial can be found at:
https://www.charttrials.abdn.ac.uk/poppy/index.php

The Australian arm of this trial is hoping to recruit 180 women with Stage I – III prolapse, to be randomised to an intervention group who receive a physiotherapy-supervised pelvic floor muscle training program plus lifestyle modification advice, or to a control group who receive lifestyle modification advice only. The Australian arm of the POPPY trial is interested to investigate the changes in pelvic floor muscle function that occur in women with prolapse. This will be measured by pelvic floor muscle strength measures including pressure manometry, realtime transperineal ultrasound, and digital palpation. Other outcome measures include prolapse anatomical severity, measured by the POP-Q quantification system, and a prolapse symptom severity score. At the Royal Women’s Hospital site, a small sample of women will also take part in qualitative in-depth interviews to obtain insight into their experiences of POP and their involvement in and adherence with the trial interventions. This qualitative aspect of the trial shall be overseen by Dr Clare Delany, Senior Lecturer in Ethics and Law at The School of Physiotherapy.

The project will be administered from The School of Physiotherapy, University of Melbourne, by Project Manager Helena Frawley. Any enquiries regarding the project can be directed to Helena on (03) 8344 4171, or h.frawley@unimelb.edu.au

Grants & Publications

• RSRC Grants
• RSRC Publications