The energy cost of common daily activities in African women: increased expenditure in pregnancy?

Lawrence, Mark; Singh, Jaskaran; Lawrence, Françoise; Rg, Whitehead

doi:10.1093/ajcn/42.5.753

Cited by 84 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…RMR and its alterations induced by pregnancy have been documented elsewhere [1,5,10,17,18,20,[37][38][39][40][41] . Note that the RMR data presented in the relevant studies were not scaled but were adjusted for body weight using the simple ratio model which divides metabolic rate by weight.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prepregnancy Body Mass Index and Resting Metabolic Rate during Pregnancy

Melzer

Schütz²,

Soehnchen³

et al. 2010

Ann Nutr Metab

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aim: The resting metabolic rate (RMR) varies among pregnant women. The factors responsible for this variability are unknown. This study aimed to assess the influence of the prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) on the RMR during late pregnancy. Methods: RMR, height, weight, and total (TEE) and activity (AEE) energy expenditures were measured in 46 healthy women aged 31 ± 5 years (mean ± SD) with low (<19.8), normal (19.8–26.0), and high (>26.0) prepregnancy BMI at 38.2 ± 1.5 weeks of gestation (t_gest) and 40 ± 7 weeks postpartum (t_post) (n = 27). Results: The mean t_gest RMR for the low-, normal-, and high-BMI groups was 1,373, 1,807, and 2,191 kcal/day, respectively (p = 0.001). The overall mean t_gest RMR was 316 ± 183 kcal/day (21%), higher than the overall mean t_post value and this difference was correlated with gestational weight gain (r = 0.78, p < 0.001). The scaled metabolic rate by allometry (RMR/kilograms^0.73) was similar in the low-, normal-, and high-BMI groups, respectively (p = 0.45). Changes in t_gest TEE closely paralleled changes in t_gest RMR (r = 0.84, p < 0.001). AEE was similar among the BMI groups. Conclusion: The RMR is significantly increased in the third trimester of pregnancy. The absolute gestational RMR is higher in women with high prepregnancy BMI due to increased body weight. The scaled metabolic rate (RMR/kilograms^0.73) is similar among the BMI groups of pregnant women.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prepregnancy Body Mass Index and Resting Metabolic Rate during Pregnancy

Melzer

Schütz²,

Soehnchen³

et al. 2010

Ann Nutr Metab

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The energy cost of DIT seems to be unaltered (Nagy and King, 1984;Poppitt et al, 1993;Spaaij et al, 1994;Bronstein et al, 1995;Piers et al, 1995;Prentice et al, 1996) or even reduced (Contaldo et al, 1987;Illingworth et al, 1987;KoppHoolihan et al, 1999). The energy cost attributed to PA is generally low (Lawrence and Whitehead, 1988;Butte et al, 2004;Clarke et al, 2005;Lof and Forsum, 2006;Rousham et al, 2006) and tends to decrease as pregnancy advances (Lawrence et al, 1985;van Raaij et al, 1987;Singh et al, 1989;Heini et al, 1991;Forsum et al, 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pregnancy-related changes in activity energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate in Switzerland

et al. 2009

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background/Objectives: To measure resting metabolic rate (RMR), activity energy expenditure (AEE), total energy expenditure (TEE) and physical activity pattern, that is, duration and intensity (in metabolic equivalents, METs) of activities performed in late pregnancy compared with postpartum in healthy, well-nourished women living in Switzerland. Subjects/Methods: Weight, height, RMR, AEE, TEE and physical activity patterns were measured longitudinally in 27 healthy women aged 23-40 years at 38.2 ± 1.5 weeks of gestation and 40.0 ± 7.2 weeks postpartum. Results: The RMR during late pregnancy was 7480 kJ per day, that is, 1320±760 kJ per day (21.4%) higher than the postpartum RMR (Po0.001). Absolute changes in RMR were positively correlated with the corresponding changes in body weight (r ¼ 0.61, Po0.001). RMR per kg body weight was similar in late pregnancy vs postpartum (P ¼ 0.28). AEE per kg during pregnancy and postpartum was 40 ± 13 and 50 ± 20 kJ/kg, respectively (P ¼ 0.001). There were significant differences in daily time spent at METso1.5 (1067 vs 998 min, P ¼ 0.045), at 2.5pMETs o3.0 (58 vs 82 min, P ¼ 0.002) and METsX6 (1 vs 6 min, P ¼ 0.014) during pregnancy and postpartum, respectively. Conclusions: Energy expenditure in healthy women living in Switzerland increases in pregnancy compared with the postpartum state. Additional energy expenditure is primarily attributed to an increase in RMR, which is partly compensated by a decrease in AEE. The decrease in physical activity-related energy costs is achieved by selecting less demanding activities and should be taken into account when defining extra energy requirements for late pregnancy in Switzerland.

show abstract

“…We hypothesize that a major constraint preventing older women from spending more time grain processing is the energetic expenditure required. We calculated the amount of energy expenditure required for grain processing and mongongo nut processing from published sources (Lawrence et al 1985). Because we were unable to find measurements for energy expenditure for mongongo nut processing, we considered using measurements of energy expenditure for groundnut processing (1.41 kcal/min) and shellfish cracking (1.53 kcal/min) as proxies.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Grain processing is an energetically demanding activity; the estimate of 3.27 kcal/min. that we use places this activity as energetically equivalent to moderate exertion for the younger women and high moderate exertion for the older women (Lawrence et al 1985). Prior research in this community has shown that grain processing ability is largely based on strength and stamina while mongongo nut processing ability is largely based on experience (Bock 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grandmothers’ Productivity and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa

Bock

Johnson

2008

J Cross Cult Gerontol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic has left large numbers of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. Botswana has an HIV prevalence rate of approximately 40% in adults. Morbidity and mortality are high, and in a population of a 1.3 million there are nearly 50,000 children who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS. The extended family, particularly grandparents, absorbs much of the childrearing responsibilities. This creates large amounts of additional work for grandmothers especially. The embodied capital model and the grandmother hypothesis are both derived from life history theory within evolutionary ecology, and both predict that one important factor in the evolution of the human extended family structure is that postreproductive individuals such as grandmothers provide substantial support to their grandchildren's survival. Data collected in the pre-pandemic context in a traditional multi-ethnic community in the Okavango Delta of Botswana are analyzed to calculate the amount of work effort provided to a household by women of different ages. Results show that the contributions of older and younger women to the household in term of both productivity and childrearing are qualitatively and quantitatively different. These results indicate that it is unrealistic to expect older women to be able to compensate for the loss of younger women's contributions to the household, and that interventions be specifically designed to support older women based on the type of activities in which they engage that affect child survival, growth, and development.

show abstract

The energy cost of common daily activities in African women: increased expenditure in pregnancy?

Cited by 84 publications

References 17 publications

Prepregnancy Body Mass Index and Resting Metabolic Rate during Pregnancy

Prepregnancy Body Mass Index and Resting Metabolic Rate during Pregnancy

Pregnancy-related changes in activity energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate in Switzerland

Grandmothers’ Productivity and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About