The physical activity patterns among pregnant women at a tertiary care hospital in, Pakistan

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the physical activity patterns among pregnant women at a tertiary care hospital in, Pakistan.
 Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted through questionnaire for a span of eight months (from 17th July, 2020 till 20th March, 2021) amongst pregnant women visiting Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for ante-natal visit including paramedical staff having 24 to 28 weeks of gestation. With the written consent of participants, the physical activity was assessed by a validated self-reported Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ) having 32 questions to determine the duration; frequency, intensity and type of physical activity during pregnancy. Participants were asked to select the physical activity and time spent on it per day during the current gestational period. From the PPAQ, average weekly energy expenditure in Metabolic Equivalent of Task (MET-h-week) was calculated. Demographic data including age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, parity, literacy and working status were recorded.
 Results: A Total of 229 participants of different ethnicities were enrolled. House hold and care giving type of activities of moderate to light intensity were commonly practiced by our pregnant women. Whereas multi gravida were involved in light physical activities. The Punjabi and Baluchi women mostly took occupational type of physical activities. Working women were physically more active than household women. Around 186 (80%) of the participants had no idea that they should take antenatal exercises during pregnancy.
 Conclusion: The study concluded that house hold and care giving type activities with moderate to light intensity were commonly carried by pregnant women. Majority of them had no knowledge of antenatal exercise.
 doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.4.4809
 How to cite this:Nadeem S, Khatoon A, Rasheed S, Munim TF. The physical activity patterns among pregnant women at a tertiary care hospital in, Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2022;38(4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.38.4.4809
 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Physical activity levels of pregnant women at the time of diagnosis with gestational diabetes attending a tertiary care hospital in Lucknow City, Uttar Pradesh

“…This finding corroborates with the results of Dawit et al 19 In contrast, pregnant working women in Pakistan preferred engaging in sedentary activities at work. 18,19 In this study multiparous women were more physically active compared to primipara women and they were mostly engaged in household activities. Similar results were shown by Sharifha et al 12 First time pregnant women might be extra careful and they are also instructed by their elders in the family to avoid physical activity to avoid miscarriage.…”

“…This finding is in line with results shown by Shabnam Nadeem et al in Pakistan. 18 The possible explanation of this could be that women of upper socioeconomic class had better educational level compared to the lower middle and lower socioeconomic group participants thus having a better understanding of benefits of being active during pregnancy. However, Ragna et al in their study observed that high or low socioeconomic status group is more physically active remains unclear.…”

“…Similar result was obtained by Shabnam Nadeem in Pakistan who showed women expended more energy on domestic and caregiving duties. 18 This similarity might be is due to culture of joint family which is still prevailing in our country in which in addition to caring for their own family, women must also look after their elderly relatives. Working women in the study were more physically active than homemakers.…”

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards antenatal physical exercise among pregnant women in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…As a result myths and misconceptions regarding antenatal physical exercise is not common among women with higher education level. Studies in China Hong Kong, Brazil, Pakistan, Brazil Sao Paulo and Saudi Arabia have portrayed similar positive pattern of association between antenatal physical exercise and higher education level [ 40 , 43 , 47 , 49 , 51 ].…”