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D. Bernardo1,2, C. Carvalho3, J. Mota2, P.C. Santos4,2
1Instituto Piaget, School of Health, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, 2FADEUP, Ciafel, Porto, Portugal, 3Sword Health, Porto, Portugal, 4Polytechnic of Porto, School of Health, Porto, Portugal
Background: There is a linear association between pre-gestational Body Mass Index (BMI) and almost all adverse pregnancy outcomes. Pregnancy is ‘a window of opportunities’ in terms of changing behavior and improving awareness on healthy living.
Purpose: This study aims to describe maternal physical activity levels, stratified by pre-gestational BMI, verify the accomplishment of physical activity recommendations in pregnant women and correlate pre-gestational BMI and physical activity accomplishment with maternal, delivery and neonatal parameters.
Methods: A retrospective study with 103 pregnant women was carried out. Physical activity levels were evaluated using a questionnaireand accelerometry, pre-gestational BMI was obtained through Quetelet formula and used the American College of Sports Medicine’s guidelines to determinate physical activity accomplish levels. Continuous data were presented in mean and standard deviation, and categorical as numbers and percentages. The F-test was used to examine the differences between groups.
Results: Pregnant women spend 42.9% of the time on household activities, and, for pregnant women with obesity, 91.5% of the time were spend in sedentary activities. Women with normative BMI had higher levels of moderate intensity activities, 15.8% of participants with obesity reached the international recommendations for physical activity practice and women who accomplish physical activity recommendations gain less weight during pregnancy. A high percentage of overweight and obese pregnant women exceed the recommendations for gestational weight gain and the gestational diabetes prevalence was higher in obesity group (p=0.03between groups). Regarding delivery and neonatal parameters, no statistical differences were found between BMI or physical activity groups.
Conclusions: Household and occupational activities constituted the largest percentage of energy expenditure. Pregnant women with obesity had higher levels of sedentary behavior, higher prevalence of gestational diabetes and exceed the international recommendations for gestational weight gain. A low percentage of participants with obesity reached the recommended levels of physical activity.
Implications: During pregnancy, the proper assess of physical activity levels, sedentary behaviors and comorbidities like obesity and gestational diabetes, determine trends, may change the policies and practices in maternal and child care and have the potential to generate health development forwomen and newborns.
Funding acknowledgements: FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the projects UI/BD/151206/2021 and CIAFEL:FCTUID/DTP/00617/2020; ITR:LA/P/0064/2020.
Keywords:
Physical Activity
Pregnancy;
Obesity
Physical Activity
Pregnancy;
Obesity
Topics:
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Pelvic, sexual and reproductive health
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Pelvic, sexual and reproductive health
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: University Hospital Center of São João
Committee: University Hospital Center of São João
Ethics number: 165/19
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
