Physical activity and associated factors among pregnant women in Ethiopia: facility-based cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Regular physical activity (PA) has health benefits, including reducing the risk of complications during pregnancy. In Ethiopia, little is known about PA status and its determinants among pregnant women. The purpose of this study was to assess PA status and associated factors among pregnant women attending antenatal care at public and private health facilities in Mekelle, Ethiopia. Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted. Data was collected from 299 pregnant women using a structured questionnaire. Study participants were selected using a simple random sampling technique. A binary logistic regression was modeled to investigate the statistical significance of independent variables with PA status during pregnancy. Factors associated with PA status were estimated using adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals and statistical significance was declared at p-value < 0.05. Results: 79.3% of the study participants were classified as sedentary. The age group of 26-35 years (AOR: 2.69, 95% CI: 1.07-6.78), attending non-formal education (AOR: 13.50, 95% CI: 2.65-68.91), and women who did not work outside the home (AOR: 5.23, 95% CI: 1.34-20.38) were significantly associated with a higher risk of sedentary activity status. Pregnant women who were married (AOR: 0.26, 95% CI: 0.09-0.73), had two children (AOR: 0.13, 95% CI: 0.03-0.59), traveled an hour or more to health facilities (AOR: 0.31, 95% CI: 0.11-0.89) were protected from being sedentary. Conclusion: Sedentary PA status was highly prevalent during pregnancy. Pregnant women in the age group of 26-35 years, with a non-formal education, and women who did not work outside the home had a greater risk of reporting being sedentary. Those who were married, had two children, and traveled an hour or more to health facilities were less likely to be sedentary. Stakeholders (Tigrai regional health bureau, Mekelle University, local NGOs working with pregnant women and societies at large) should give higher emphasis on designing appropriate strategies including educational interventions to overcome barriers to PA during pregnancy.

Antenatal exercises during pregnancy: knowledge, attitude, and practice of pregnant women in Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

“…This study found that about 30% of the pregnant women practiced exercise during pregnancy, nonetheless, only 11.7% among the overall sample and 37.9% among those who practiced exercise had adequate practice in accordance with the minimum recommended guidelines for this group [1,17]. This is almost similar to the ndings of two regional studies reporting about level of physical activity during pregnancy [20,30]. However, this is much lower than the practice of exercise reported in Nigeria (84.7%), Canada (29%), and Brazil (29%) in a similar population [28,31,36].…”

Developing a Physical Activity Intervention Strategy for Pregnant Women in Buffalo City Municipality, South Africa: A Study Protocol

“…Globally, most women do not meet the 150 min per week PA recommendation by specialised bodies and institutions. Previous studies have reported the prevalence of prenatal inactiveness with variations across countries as follows: Serbia (27.2%) [6], USA (25%) [7], China (45.15%) [8], Ethiopia (21.9%, 8.4%) [9,10], Nigeria (10.2%, 13.6%) [11,12] and Norway (14.6%) [13].…”

“…Notwithstanding the substantial evidence on the benefits of PA during pregnancy, studies have reported a considerable decline in PA among pregnant women in both developed [47][48][49][50] and developing countries [6,9,10,[51][52][53][54][55], with varying degrees of participation shaped by context-specific paradigms.…”

“…Compared to other regions in the world, there are only a few published studies on PA among pregnant women in Africa [9][10][11]56,57,66,68,77]. On this continent, pregnancy is often considered a time of confinement and many women's activities and exercise levels decrease over the course of the pregnancy due to tiredness or being unwell [56].…”

“…It is estimated that 27.5% of the African population do not meet the recommended guidelines for PA [54]. Similarly, many pregnant women in Africa do not live up to the recommendations for PA, as their participation in PA is low [9][10][11].…”