Comparison of health-promoting behaviours, eating behaviour patterns and perceived social support in normal-weight and overweight pregnant women: An unmatched case-control study.
Sepideh Hajian, Azita Fathnezhad-Kazemi
PMID 32257262WHAT IT FOUND
Pregnant women with pre-pregnancy overweight reported lower health-promoting behaviours and more fast food, sweets, emotional eating and accidental planning than normal-weight women.
Perceived social support did not differ. Self-report limits what this can show.
Key findings
01The overweight group had a lower total health-promoting behaviour score, 132.89, than the normal-weight group, 137.51 (p = .029), on a 52 to 208 scale.
02The overweight group reported higher mean scores for fast food and sweets, 26.63 versus 23.84, emotional eating, 24.92 versus 23.11, and accidental planning, 19.43 versus 18.52.
03Perceived social support did not differ significantly between the normal-weight and overweight groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study relied on self-reported questionnaires. The questionnaires were not validated specifically for pregnant women. Results can be generalised only to normal-weight and overweight pregnant women, not to obese or low-weight women. The groups were unmatched and differed in maternal age, number of pregnancies and spouse education. The authors note that pregnancy trimesters involve changes, and they suggest future comparisons between matched groups over time.
Declared interests
The authors declared no competing interests. Funding was provided by Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that these behaviours caused pre-pregnancy overweight or that counselling will change them. This is an unmatched case-control study of self-reported behaviours in pregnant women, so it shows association, not cause or treatment effect.