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The weight of motherhood: Identifying obesity, gestational weight gain and physical activity level of Italian pregnant women

OBJECTIVE: Pre-pregnancy obesity and suboptimal gestational weight gain are on the rise globally and are independently associated with several maternal and neonatal complications. A healthy lifestyle, including regular physical activity, may improve health and reduce these complications, but many wo...

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Autores principales: Benvenuti, Maria Beatrice, Bø, Kari, Draghi, Simonetta, Tandoi, Elisabetta, Haakstad, Lene AH
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8155776/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34032172
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17455065211016136
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author Benvenuti, Maria Beatrice
Bø, Kari
Draghi, Simonetta
Tandoi, Elisabetta
Haakstad, Lene AH
author_facet Benvenuti, Maria Beatrice
Bø, Kari
Draghi, Simonetta
Tandoi, Elisabetta
Haakstad, Lene AH
author_sort Benvenuti, Maria Beatrice
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Pre-pregnancy obesity and suboptimal gestational weight gain are on the rise globally and are independently associated with several maternal and neonatal complications. A healthy lifestyle, including regular physical activity, may improve health and reduce these complications, but many women are less active and willing to engage in physical activity with advancing gestation. Therefore, the inclusion of a wider range of physical activity such as domestic chore, occupational activity and active commuting may help pregnant women to meet the physical activity recommendations of 150 min/week. Very little is known about these issues in Italy, a country with strong traditional roles regarding pregnancy and motherhood, including “la famiglia” (the family). Primary objective describes health and lifestyle behavior of pregnant Italian women. Secondary objective reports total physical activity level, recreational exercise and context of these activities from pre-pregnancy and throughout gestation in regard to gestational weight gain management. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study performed in one public hospital and four antenatal clinics in Italy. Participants (n = 513) completed a validated self-administered questionnaire, the Physical Activity Pregnancy Questionnaire, in gestation week 36.01 (standard deviation 2.0). Pre-pregnancy body weight (kg) was self-reported, whereas maternal weight (kg) was measured at gestation week 36. In line with current American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines (2020), participants were categorized into regular physical activity (⩾150 min/week) or non-regular physical activity (<150 min/week). RESULTS: Mean pre-pregnancy body-mass index was 22.8 kg/m(2) (standard deviation 3.9), with 14.4% of women entering motherhood overweight and 5.3% obese. Mean gestational weight gain was 11.9 kg (standard deviation 4.1). Among those with a body-mass index ⩾25, 46.5% gained above the Institute of Medicine recommendations. With respect to recreational exercise/sport, 4.7% were active according to guidelines, whereas 82.7% accumulated ⩾150 min/week when combining exercise/sport with daily-life physical activity (commuting and occupational). Exercising ⩾150 min/week and working 100% in third trimester were associated with gestational weight gain within Institute of Medicine recommendations (p = 0.06 and p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Italian pregnant women have a low exercise level, still over 80% achieved a total physical activity level ⩾150 min/week when adding occupational and commuting activities. Nearly 50% of overweight and obese women exceeded the recommended gestational weight gain during pregnancy.
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spelling pubmed-81557762021-06-07 The weight of motherhood: Identifying obesity, gestational weight gain and physical activity level of Italian pregnant women Benvenuti, Maria Beatrice Bø, Kari Draghi, Simonetta Tandoi, Elisabetta Haakstad, Lene AH Womens Health (Lond) Original Research Article OBJECTIVE: Pre-pregnancy obesity and suboptimal gestational weight gain are on the rise globally and are independently associated with several maternal and neonatal complications. A healthy lifestyle, including regular physical activity, may improve health and reduce these complications, but many women are less active and willing to engage in physical activity with advancing gestation. Therefore, the inclusion of a wider range of physical activity such as domestic chore, occupational activity and active commuting may help pregnant women to meet the physical activity recommendations of 150 min/week. Very little is known about these issues in Italy, a country with strong traditional roles regarding pregnancy and motherhood, including “la famiglia” (the family). Primary objective describes health and lifestyle behavior of pregnant Italian women. Secondary objective reports total physical activity level, recreational exercise and context of these activities from pre-pregnancy and throughout gestation in regard to gestational weight gain management. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study performed in one public hospital and four antenatal clinics in Italy. Participants (n = 513) completed a validated self-administered questionnaire, the Physical Activity Pregnancy Questionnaire, in gestation week 36.01 (standard deviation 2.0). Pre-pregnancy body weight (kg) was self-reported, whereas maternal weight (kg) was measured at gestation week 36. In line with current American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists guidelines (2020), participants were categorized into regular physical activity (⩾150 min/week) or non-regular physical activity (<150 min/week). RESULTS: Mean pre-pregnancy body-mass index was 22.8 kg/m(2) (standard deviation 3.9), with 14.4% of women entering motherhood overweight and 5.3% obese. Mean gestational weight gain was 11.9 kg (standard deviation 4.1). Among those with a body-mass index ⩾25, 46.5% gained above the Institute of Medicine recommendations. With respect to recreational exercise/sport, 4.7% were active according to guidelines, whereas 82.7% accumulated ⩾150 min/week when combining exercise/sport with daily-life physical activity (commuting and occupational). Exercising ⩾150 min/week and working 100% in third trimester were associated with gestational weight gain within Institute of Medicine recommendations (p = 0.06 and p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: Italian pregnant women have a low exercise level, still over 80% achieved a total physical activity level ⩾150 min/week when adding occupational and commuting activities. Nearly 50% of overweight and obese women exceeded the recommended gestational weight gain during pregnancy. SAGE Publications 2021-05-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8155776/ /pubmed/34032172 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17455065211016136 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Research Article
Benvenuti, Maria Beatrice
Bø, Kari
Draghi, Simonetta
Tandoi, Elisabetta
Haakstad, Lene AH
The weight of motherhood: Identifying obesity, gestational weight gain and physical activity level of Italian pregnant women
title The weight of motherhood: Identifying obesity, gestational weight gain and physical activity level of Italian pregnant women
title_full The weight of motherhood: Identifying obesity, gestational weight gain and physical activity level of Italian pregnant women
title_fullStr The weight of motherhood: Identifying obesity, gestational weight gain and physical activity level of Italian pregnant women
title_full_unstemmed The weight of motherhood: Identifying obesity, gestational weight gain and physical activity level of Italian pregnant women
title_short The weight of motherhood: Identifying obesity, gestational weight gain and physical activity level of Italian pregnant women
title_sort weight of motherhood: identifying obesity, gestational weight gain and physical activity level of italian pregnant women
topic Original Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8155776/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34032172
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17455065211016136
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