Prenatal Counseling throughout Pregnancy: Effects on Physical Activity Level, Perceived Barriers, and Perinatal Health Outcomes: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Shelly Ruart, Stéphane Sinnapah, Olivier Hue, Eustase Janky and Sophie Antoine-Jonville
Additional contact information
Shelly Ruart: Laboratory ACTES EA3596, Univ Antilles, 97159 Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, France
Stéphane Sinnapah: Laboratory ACTES EA3596, Univ Antilles, 97159 Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, France
Olivier Hue: Laboratory ACTES EA3596, Univ Antilles, 97159 Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, France
Eustase Janky: Gynaecology, Obstetrics Department, University Hospital of Guadeloupe, 97159 Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, France
Sophie Antoine-Jonville: Laboratory ACTES EA3596, Univ Antilles, 97159 Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, France

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: Physical activity during pregnancy has many health benefits. However, the physical activity level is insufficient throughout pregnancy and women report perceived barriers to physical activity. This study assessed the impact of a counseling intervention offered in addition to routine pregnancy care on physical activity patterns, perceived barriers, and perinatal health outcomes. A quasi-experimental trial was conducted in the Maternity Unit of a hospital in Guadeloupe (a French department). Ninety-six pregnant women were allocated to a control or intervention group. Regular physical activity counseling was dispensed to the women in the intervention group by trained healthcare providers. The physical activity level and the perceived barriers were assessed in each trimester. Outcomes for the perinatal health of the mother and child were measured throughout pregnancy and after delivery. The perceived barriers, such as a lack of information about the health benefits and risks over the two trimesters (all p < 0.05) and insecurity related to practice throughout pregnancy (all p < 0.05), were different in favor of the intervention group. There were no significant between-group differences for the major indices of physical activity, whether measured or reported. The intervention women reported significantly more sedentary activity compared with the control group in the third trimester, 64.7 (36.4–78.7) vs. 22.7 (9.4–49.8) MET-hours/week, respectively ( p < 0.001). The perinatal health outcomes for the mother and child showed no significant differences. The intervention was unable to limit the decline in physical activity or improve health outcomes. However, it was associated with an improvement in the perception of barriers. Future research should focus on interventions that have a sufficient quantitative impact on perceived barriers in order to limit physical activity decline.

Keywords: physical activity; counseling; barriers to physical activity; prenatal care; outcomes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8887/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8887/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8887-:d:453490

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().