Abstract
Purpose: Our previous findings demonstrated that the amount (dose) of maternal physical activity during pregnancy was associated with changes in fetal heart autonomic control, similar to an adult exercise trained response. The purpose of this study was to determine if the dose of maternal physical activity during association persists after birth. Methods: We analyzed 43 maternal-infant pairs. Since the majority of measures were not normally distributed, the correlations between infant heart rate (HR) and HR Variability (HRV) metrics and maternal physical activity measures were assessed by the Spearman correlation coefficient. The Spearman procedure also was used to examine relationships among the physical activity variables. Results: The median values for maternal physical activity duration were 1140 min (~90 min/wk), for energy expenditure 6,635 kcal, and the intensity was 5.4 kcal.min-1 (Table 1). Based on the average maternal weight, average intensity is near the cut-off (6.0 kcal.min-1) for moderate and vigorous intensity level of physical activity. There was a significant positive correlation between the duration of maternal physical and infant Low Frequency (LF) HRV power (p=0.02), as well as the amount of energy expenditure (i.e. calories burned) in physical activity with infant short-term HRV (RMSSD, p=0.03), LF power (p=0.01) and high frequency (HF) HRV power (p=0.03). Conclusion: The amount of time and energy expended during physical activity during gestation positively influences the development of neonatal cardiac autonomic control. Coupled with our previous findings of positive fetal dose associated with physical activity during pregnancy suggests, the prenatal period may be the earliest time at which the cardiac health of infants can be positively influenced to decrease risk of heart disease.
Highlights
Clinicians continue to recommend physical activity to adults, and children, for overall heart health benefits, but especially for treating heart disease and attenuating risk factors of heart disease [1]
In addition to pregnant women gaining cardiovascular benefits from being active during pregnancy [6,7], our previous studies demonstrated that fetal exposure to physical activity during pregnancy was associated with lower fetal heart rate (HR) and increased Heart Rate Variability (HRV) during maternal rest [8,9,10]
The duration or amount of maternal physical activity during pregnancy was positively correlated with fetal HRV, while the intensity of physical activity during pregnancy was inversely correlated to fetal HR [11]
Summary
Clinicians continue to recommend physical activity to adults, and children, for overall heart health benefits, but especially for treating heart disease and attenuating risk factors of heart disease [1]. The dose response of activity is significantly related to increased cardio-respiratory fitness, decreased cardiovascular disease risk, as well as lower resting heart rate (HR) and increased measures of HR variability [3,4]. The duration or amount of maternal physical activity during pregnancy was positively correlated with fetal HRV, while the intensity of physical activity during pregnancy was inversely correlated to fetal HR [11] Since these changes mirror the physiological adaptations observed in children and adults due to physical activity and are associated with health benefits, it is important to determine if the fetal cardiac changes in response to maternal physical activity during pregnancy persist after birth
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