Physical activity during pregnancy and offspring cardiovascular risk factors: findings from a prospective cohort study

Abstract

ObjectivesThe long-term consequences of maternal physical activity during pregnancy for offspring cardiovascular health are unknown. We examined the association of maternal self-reported physical activity in pregnancy (18 weeks gestation) with offspring cardiovascular risk factors at age 15.DesignProspective cohort study.SettingThe Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).Participants4665 maternal-offspring pairs (based on a sample with multiple imputation to deal with missing data) from the ALSPAC, a prospective cohort based in the South West of England with mothers recruited in pregnancy in 1991–1992.Primary and secondary outcome measuresOffspring cardiovascular risk factors at age 15; body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, glucose, insulin, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides.ResultsGreater maternal physical activity was associated with lower BMI, waist circumference, glucose and insulin in unadjusted analyses. The magnitude of associations was generally small with wide CIs, and most associations attenuated towards the null after adjusting for confounders. The strongest evidence of association after adjustment for confounders was for glucose, although the 95% CI for this association includes the null; a one SD greater physical activity during pregnancy was associated with a −0.013 mmol/L difference in offspring glucose levels (equivalent to approximately one-third of a SD; 95% CI −0.027 to 0.001 mmol/L).ConclusionsOur results suggest that maternal physical activity in pregnancy, measured at 18 weeks gestation, is unlikely to be an important determinant of later offspring cardiovascular health. There was some suggestion of association with offspring glucose, but given that all other associations (including insulin) were null after adjustment for confounders, this result should be interpreted with caution.

Diet and physical activity in pregnancy and offspring’s cardiovascular health: a systematic review

“…The studies included in this review comprised three articles about intervention studies, [17][18][19] of which two articles used data from the same RCT and 16 articles about observational studies, [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] covering 12 mother-child cohorts ( Table 2). During the offspring follow-up, one of the intervention studies did not examine their data as intervention v. control group but combined both groups.…”

“…17 There were 16 articles reporting on the association of maternal diet during pregnancy with offspring's cardiovascular health [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][25][26][27][28][29][30][33][34][35] and three articles reporting on the association of maternal physical activity during pregnancy with offspring's cardiovascular health. 24,31,32 No studies included both maternal diet and physical activity in one paper, although the association T. M. van Elten et al with both maternal exposures was studied in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort at the same child age. 29,32 In addition, there were no studies examining maternal lifestyle before conception.…”

“…24,31,32 No studies included both maternal diet and physical activity in one paper, although the association T. M. van Elten et al with both maternal exposures was studied in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort at the same child age. 29,32 In addition, there were no studies examining maternal lifestyle before conception. Three mother-child studies examined offspring health twice over time and published the results in separate articles.…”

“…Three mother-child studies examined offspring health twice over time and published the results in separate articles. 17,19,23,[27][28][29]32 However, studying similar maternal exposures and offspring health outcomes at both points in time was only done in the Nutrition, Allergy, Mucosal Immunology and Intestinal Microbiota (NAMI) RCT. 17,19 In all included articles, maternal diet and physical activity were measured using self-reported questionnaires or interviews.…”

Influencia del programa SWEP (Study Water Exercise Pregnant) en los resultados perinatales: protocolo de estudio

“…Tras una revisión bibliográfica, encontramos que los últimos estudios se ha demostrado que el ejercicio en la mujer embarazada no solo previene la ganancia excesiva de peso en esta etapa (15)(16)(17)(18) que se asocia a diabetes gestacional (19)(20)(21) sino también la hipertensión arterial (22)(23)(24)(25). El beneficio no sólo es para la madre sino también para el feto, pues disminuye el riesgo de macrosomía y todo esto facilita un parto más fisiológico (26)(27)(28)(29).…”