1Assistant Professor, Department of Physiotherapy, Guru Jambheshwar University of Sci. & Tech., Hisar, Haryana
2Associate Professor, Department of Physiotherapy, Guru Jambheshwar University of Sci. & Tech., Hisar, Haryana
Online published on 14 October, 2021.
Regular physical activity plays an important role for maintaining a good reproductive health and healthy lifestyle during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of pedometer, text messages and exercises based physical activity interventions in pregnancy on weight related parameters.
Sixty pregnant women were randomized into five groups (N=12 in each group): (A) Pedometer; (B) Pedometer and text messages; (C) Text messages; (D) Exercises; and (E) Control group. Pregnant women with gestational age of less than 16 weeks, having singleton pregnancy, a BMI ≤18.5 kg/m2 and an availability of mobile phone were selected for the study. Groups A and B were encouraged to improve physical activity level, focusing at a step count of at least 5000–7500 steps per day assessed by pedometer on seven consecutive days per month. Text messages group received standard SMS (physical activity, diet, motivational, and educational specific) and exercise group attended four supervised exercise sessions per month up to delivery at the hospital.
The pedometer and pedometer plus text messages based physical activity interventions have found to be effective for increasing physical activity and statistically significant in controlling the gestational weight gain and post-partum weight retention after two months of delivery (p<0.05) as compared to control group.
The study found that during physical activity intervention estimated by pedometer with or without text messages are effective in reducing weight related parameters during pregnancy.
Pedometer, Text messages, Exercise, Gestational weight gain
