Perceived Barriers to Physical Activity Among Pregnant Women

Abstract

Objective-Physical activity generally declines during pregnancy, but barriers to activity during this time period are not well understood. The objective was to examine barriers to physical activity in a large cohort of pregnant women and to explore these barriers in more depth with qualitative data derived from a separate focus group study using a socioecologic framework.Method-A total of 1535 pregnant women (27-30 weeks' gestation) enrolled in the Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition Study were asked an open-ended question about their primary barrier to physical activity; responses were coded into categories according to the socioecologic framework. To further elucidate, 13 focus groups of a total of 58 pregnant women (20-37 weeks' gestation) were conducted among Hispanic, African American, and White participants.Results-Among the 1535 pregnant women participating in the survey, 85% reported an intrapersonal barrier to physical activity, of which almost two-thirds were health related. Only 2% of the women reported their main barrier to physical activity as interpersonal and 3% reported a neighborhood or environmental barrier. These results were supported by the focus group data, overall and by race/ethnicity and body mass index. Although women discussed barriers to physical activity at a variety of levels, the intrapersonal level was the most frequently cited and discussed factor in both studies.Conclusions-Since pregnancy may trigger the development of obesity and since physical activity is recommended for healthy pregnant women, it is imperative to promote physical activity in a more relevant way. These quantitative and qualitative studies revealed many barriers to physical activity among pregnant women and some suggestions for interventions.

Impact of compliance with different guidelines on physical activity during pregnancy and perceived barriers to leisure physical activity

“…Other studies have related that non-pregnant women only undertake PA outside of the home during daylight hours (Caperchione et al, 2011), which becomes hard with a day's work, and have also indicated that finding time to be active when not attending to family duties is a major barrier to PA engagement (Caperchione, Mummery, & Joyner, 2009), as family duties create time conflicts. Along the same lines, Evenson et al, (2009) found that 85% of a sample of 1535 pregnant women reported that intrapersonal factors were the main barriers to leisure PA. However, the evaluation moments in this study were different from the evaluation moments in our study (first evaluation at 20 weeks and second evaluation at 27-30 weeks).…”

“…Barriers according to the socioecological framework. All women who said that they engaged in no leisure PA in their first and second trimesters were asked about their reasons for not performing leisure PA. A table with types of barriers to leisure PA was constructed based on Evenson's study (Evenson et al, 2009); it included such possible answers as lack of time, work or social conflicts, being too busy, concern about the baby, not wanting to overdo it, medical necessity, dislike of exercise, lack of motivation, incontinence, lower back pain, pelvic pain, other medical conditions, having no one to exercise with, not having access to enough recreational facilities and not being able to afford such facilities. Participants had to indicate whether each option was considered as a barrier.…”

“…Social cognitions may be more easily modified and, therefore, targeted for intervention. Perceived barriers to or constraints on PA are the most frequently cited correlates of physical inactivity during pregnancy (Gaston & Cramp, 2011), although they are still not well understood (Evenson, Moos, Carrier, & Siega-Riz, 2009) as studies of this topic have some limitations. Since pregnancy is characterised by many physical and behavioural changes, it is plausible that barriers encountered early in pregnancy might be different from those encountered in the second trimester.…”

“…The socioecological framework is a comprehensive, multifaceted health promotion model that takes into account the relationships among multiple factors (McLeroy, Bibeau, Steckler, & Glanz, 1988;Sallis, Owen, & Fisher, 2008). Thus, this model may be useful when studying barriers to PA, since interventions designed to change behaviour should consider multiple dimensions simultaneously and comprehensively (Evenson et al, 2009). It is recognised that pregnancy may be a critical period for the onset of inactivity in women (Haakstad, Voldner, Henriksen, & BØ, 2009).…”

The Theory, Development, and Implementation of an e-Intervention to Prevent Excessive Gestational Weight Gain: e-Moms Roc

“…The physical activity goalsetting tool emphasized improving awareness about the safety of exercise during pregnancy because previous research found it to be a barrier to physical activity during pregnancy. [20][21][22] In addition, the tool focused on assessing barriers to being active and identifying strategies specific to those barriers. Below are the steps that were part of the physical activity goal-setting feature:…”