Activity behaviours before and during pregnancy are associated with women’s device-measured physical activity and sedentary time in later parenthood: a longitudinal cohort analysis

PURPOSE: To explore how activity behaviours before/during pregnancy relate to those in later parenthood, we assessed associations between sitting and moderate-/strenuous exercise before/during pregnancy, and sedentary time (SED) and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) 4-7 years postpartum (‘later parenthood’). METHODS: Longitudinal data were from the Southampton Women’s Survey, UK. Women reported time spent sitting (hours/day), in moderate-strenuous exercise (hours/week), and in strenuous exercise (hours/week) at 3 time points before/during pregnancy (i.e. pre-conception, at ~12weeks and ~34weeks gestation). From this, we derived three behaviour trajectories for each woman. In later parenthood, women wore an accelerometer for ≤7 days (mean: 5.4(SD:1.8)days) which we used to derive two outcomes: minutes/day SED and in MVPA. Multi-level linear regression was used to explore associations between trajectories before/during pregnancy and device-measured SED/MVPA in later parenthood. RESULTS: 780 women provided valid data before/during pregnancy and in later parenthood. Consistent high sitters (vs. low) were more sedentary 4-7 years postpartum (β=39.5 minutes/day [95%CI: 23.26,55.82]), as were women in groups who sat more in later pregnancy. Consistently high moderate/-strenuous exercisers (vs. low) were 22% (95%CI: 2-47%) more active in later parenthood; those engaging in strenuous activity preconception tended to have higher MVPA as parents. CONCLUSIONS: Trajectories of sitting and exercise before/during pregnancy are associated with sedentary time and MVPA respectively in later parenthood. Interventions to reduce sitting in pregnancy, and to encourage higher intensity activity preconception, may benefit maternal and child health.