Physical activity among Chinese pregnant women in the first trimester: A cross-sectional study.
Xin Chen, Zhixuan Xiang, Lu Chen and 3 others
PMID 40529455WHAT IT FOUND
51.0% of 1,283 Chinese pregnant women in early pregnancy did not meet 150 minutes of weekly moderate activity.
Household work and sitting filled their time; sports/exercise was minimal. First-time mothers and those with lower income or inadequate knowledge were more inactive.
Key findings
01657 of 1,283 participants, 51.0%, did not meet the guideline of at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week.
02Participants spent a median of 54.25 hours per week on sedentary activities, 38.25 hours per week on household/caregiving activities, and 0.25 hours per week on sports/exercise.
03Factors associated with not meeting guidelines included nulliparity, younger age, unmarried status, lower monthly household income, self-pay medical payment, inadequate knowledge about physical activity during pregnancy, no prepregnancy physical activity habit, and no husband physical activity habit.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it measured patterns and associations at one time and cannot show that any factor caused physical inactivity or that advice would change activity. Most participants were highly educated and of moderate or high socioeconomic status, and they were recruited from three hospitals in Guangzhou, so the findings may not apply to women with lower education or lower socioeconomic status or to other settings. Physical activity, prepregnancy habits, and husbands' habits were self-reported and may have been overestimated or underestimated.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Funding came from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the sponsor was not involved in study design, data collection, report writing, or the decision to submit.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that advising a first-trimester patient to be more active will reduce her risk of gestational diabetes or hypertension based on this paper. It measured reported activity patterns and associations only, did not test an intervention, and relied on self-report.