Demographic and social-cognitive factors associated with gestational weight gain in an Australian pregnancy cohort

Translation of the Weight-Related Behaviours Questionnaire into a Short-Form Psychosocial Assessment Tool for the Detection of Women at Risk of Excessive Gestational Weight Gain

“…Demographic and weight gain characteristics of the WATCH sample have been published previously [ 21 , 44 ]. Briefly, participants’ mean age was 28.9 years (SD 5.64), 71% had an education level at or above high school completion, 61% were married, and 55% were multiparous.…”

“…Fifty-one percent of participants (n = 75) recorded a pre-pregnancy BMI in the normal weight category (≥18.5–24.9 kg/m 2 ); 5% (n = 8) recorded a pre-pregnancy BMI in the underweight category (<18.5 kg/m 2) ; 23% (n = 34) recorded a BMI in the overweight category (≥25–29.9 kg/m 2 ), with 20% of participants (n = 30) recording a pre-pregnancy BMI in the obese category (≥30 kg/m 2 ). Of these, 60 participants had gained weight above the IOM GWG reference values by the time they reached 36 weeks gestation (BMI < 18.5 kg/m 2 , n = 5; BMI ≥ 18.5–24.9 kg/m 2 , n = 24; BMI ≥ 25–29.9 kg/m 2 , n = 20; BMI ≥ 30 kg/m 2 , n = 11) [ 21 ].…”

“…A recent review and discussion of maternal body image dissatisfaction in childbearing and early childhood reported that body image is an important but often overlooked psychosocial factor that mediates (barrier/enabler) weight gain in pregnancy [ 16 ]. A recent Australian cross-sectional study by Fealy et al [ 21 ] found body image to be predictive of EGWG. In this study, for every one unit increase in body image score, a 33% decreased odds of EGWG was observed [ 21 ].…”

“…There is a growing body of research exploring the direct and indirect relationships between these psychosocial factors and heath behaviours [ 16 , 17 ], including their role in gestational weight gain (GWG) [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Although no cause and effect relationships have been established, cohort studies to date suggest that temporal relationships exist between psychosocial factors such as body image dissatisfaction (generally measured as satisfaction with weight or shape or attitudes towards external appearance) [ 21 , 22 ], depression, weight gain attitudes, social support and EGWG [ 18 , 19 ]. The majority of studies to date have employed observational designs such as cohort and cross-sectional [ 18 , 19 ].…”

Diet, Physical Activity and Gestational Weight Gain Patterns among Pregnant Women Living with Obesity in the North East of England: The GLOWING Pilot Trial

“…The scales were dichotomized or trichotomized as appropriate into categories of agreement and disagreement (plus neither agree nor disagree for 5-point scales) for descriptive analysis [40]. Scales were summed, following reverse coding of items where required [40] to compare the sociocognitive factors between obesity classes Data analysis was carried out for all GLOWING participants combined, with subgroup analysis exploring any differences in reporting behaviours due to the different gestational ages of questionnaire data collection (samples 1 and 2). Descriptive analysis was carried out for population characteristics, and patterns in diet, PA and GWG.…”