Do the body mass index and the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus influence the level of physical activity during pregnancy and postpartum?

Cibele de Oliveira Santini; Thiago Dos Santos Imakawa; Geraldo Duarte; Silvana Maria Quintana; Elaine Christine Dantas Moisés

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0220947

Do the body mass index and the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus influence the level of physical activity during pregnancy and postpartum?

PLoS One. 2019 Aug 9;14(8):e0220947. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220947. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Cibele de Oliveira Santini¹, Thiago Dos Santos Imakawa², Geraldo Duarte¹, Silvana Maria Quintana¹, Elaine Christine Dantas Moisés¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
² Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.

Abstract

Obesity and lack of physical exercise are associated with the increase of diabetes mellitus in women of reproductive age and during the gestational period. The objective of the present study was to evaluate physical activity levels during the pregnancy and postpartum periods and the influence of body mass index (BMI) in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) or low risk pregnancy. The Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ), translated and validated for Portuguese, was used for the evaluation of physical activity (PA) level. The sample was stratified according to preconception BMI and the presence or absence of diagnosis of GDM, resulting in four groups with 66 participants each: low risk pregnancy (LRP) with normal weight (BMI ≥ 18.5 and ≤ 24 kg/m2), LRP and overweight/obese (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2), GDM with normal weight and GDM with overweight/obese. The level of PA of each participant was measured as Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET) during the preconceptional period (T0), in the third trimester of gestation (T1), and three months after delivery (T2). The comparison of the MET values showed that the values found in the evaluation three months after delivery (T2) were higher than 1.00 (1.10 MET for the LRP-normal weight, 1.06 MET for LRP-overweight/obese, 1.02 MET for the GDM- normal weight, 1.07 MET for the GDM-overweight/obese). On the pre-gestational (T0) and third trimester (T1) analyzes, the values were less than 1.00 MET. The analysis between groups in relation to BMI and diagnosis of GDM showed no difference.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Body Mass Index*
Diabetes, Gestational / diagnosis*
Exercise*
Female
Humans
Metabolic Equivalent
Postpartum Period / physiology*
Pregnancy
Time Factors
Young Adult

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), wich provided a master scholarship to CSO (1538886 / 2015-2017). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.