Abstract
Given the high risk for inactivity during pregnancy in obese women, validated questionnaires for physical activity (PA) assessment in this specific population is required before evaluating the effect of PA on perinatal outcomes. No questionnaire was validated in pregnant obese women. The Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ) has been designed based on activities reported during pregnancy and validated in pregnant women. We translated the PPAQ to French and assessed reliability and accuracy of this French version among pregnant obese women. In this cross-sectional study, pregnant obese women were evenly recruited at the end of each trimester of pregnancy. They completed the PPAQ twice, with an interval of 7 days in-between, to recall PA of the last three months. Between PPAQ assessments, participants wore an accelerometer (Actigraph GT1M) during 7 consecutive days. Fourty-nine (49) pregnant obese women (29.8±4.2 yrs, 34.7±5.1 kg.m−2) participated to the study. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) between the two PPAQ assessments were 0.90 for total activity, 0.86 for light and for moderate intensity, and 0.81 for vigorous intensity activities. It ranged from 0.59 for “Transportation” to 0.89 for “Household and Caregiving” activities. Spearman correlation coefficients (SCCs) between the PPAQ and the Matthews’ cut point used to classify an activity of moderate and above intensity were 0.50 for total activity, 0.25 for vigorous intensity and 0.40 for moderate intensity. The correlations between the PPAQ and the accelerometer counts were 0.58 for total activity, 0.39 for vigorous intensity and 0.49 for moderate intensity. The highest SCCs were for “Occupation” and “Household and Caregiving” activities. Comparisons with other standard cutpoints were presented in files S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7. The PPAQ is reliable and moderately accurate for the measure of PA of various intensities and types among pregnant obese women.
Highlights
The assessment of maternal physical activity (PA) during pregnancy is crucial due to the close relationship between the PA levels and the health status [1]
We have considered the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ) for its design, with the aim of measuring the PA during pregnancy, and for its development based on data collected among prenatal care patients [13]
One participant was excluded from the accelerometry analyses because her daily log was not appropriately completed, leading to improper estimates of her wearing compliance [33]
Summary
The assessment of maternal physical activity (PA) during pregnancy is crucial due to the close relationship between the PA levels and the health status [1]. Physical inactivity in daily life during pregnancy might increase the risk of onset or progress of perinatal events such as gestational diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia and prematurity [2,3]. There is no doubt that PA may be beneficial for obese women, most studies looking at the impact and the safety of PA during pregnancy underrepresent women with a higher risk profile such as the obese women [2,4,9,10,11]. To understand the relationship between PA and perinatal outcomes among pregnant obese women, it is important to accurately estimate the PA levels in this population. Due to the multiple PA patterns found during pregnancy, valid tools should be used to avoid measurement error
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