KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, AND PRACTICES ABOUT EXERCISES AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

P. Ramachandra¹, T. Bhat¹, M. Satish¹, J.K. Salian¹, A.T. Antony¹, N. Ngullie¹, A. Vasudeva²

¹Manipal College of Health Professions, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka, Department of Physiotherapy, Manipal, India, ²Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Manipal, India

Background: Women undergo an array of physical, physiological, and psychological changes during pregnancy. The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact across the globe, leading to changing work patterns, movement restrictions, social distancing, and increasing caring responsibilities at home. For pregnant women, it resulted in reduced face-to-face antenatal appointments, including exposure to general health information routinely displayed in clinics and discussions with staff and peers. As the general population’s physical activity has changed during the pandemic, it is likely that pregnant women’s physical activity levels may have also changed.

Purpose: To understand the knowledge, attitude, and practices about exercises among pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: One hundred and eight nine pregnant women aged between 18 to 40 years with a period of gestation of more than 20 weeks participated in this study. Women who were advised bed rest and diagnosed to have an incompetent cervix, gestational hypertension, bad obstetric history, intrauterine growth restriction, and who were advised not to exercise by the treating obstetrician were excluded from the study. After a thorough explanation of the study, written informed consent was obtained from the participants. Following COVID-19 protocol measures, a content-validated questionnaire was administered to the participants.

Results: The mean age of our study participants was 29.4±3.7 and 75.6% were in their third trimester.64.1% of participants felt that exercise helps to reduce sleep disturbance, anxiety, and stress.83.6% of participants considered breathing exercise to be important for overall health. 58.8% of participants had a positive attitude towards exercise being necessary and 86.7% reported their affinity to exercise during the COVID -19 pandemic. The majority of our participants (79.4%) were motivated to exercise and 75.2% of participants considered that it is safe to exercise during COVID -19 pandemic. Out of the 120 pregnant women (63.5%) who performed exercises regularly,99 pregnant women (82.5%) performed exercises for 15 to 30 minutes/day and 39.1% performed exercises 3 to 5 days a week. The most preferred form of exercise was walking (95.8%). Among our participants,60.8% wore a mask while exercising outside the house and 85.8% of participants sanitized or washed their hands before and after exercise.83.3% of participants washed their clothes immediately after returning home after exercise.

Implications: Understanding their existing perception and exercise practices during the pandemic will enable the physiotherapist to develop strategies to educate and modify the method/mode of exercise deliverance that might benefit this population.

Funding acknowledgements: This work was unfunded

Keywords:
COVID 19
Pregnancy
Exercises

Topics:
COVID-19
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Musculoskeletal

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Manipal College of Health Professions

Committee: Institutional Ethics Committee ,Kasturba hospital, Manipal

Ethics number: (IEC: 493/2021)