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Physical Activity, Sedentary and Sleep Phenotypes in Women During the First Trimester of Pregnancy

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Abstract

Objectives

Patterns of physical behaviors including physical activity, sedentary time, and sleep are unknown during pregnancy, but are likely to influence health outcomes. The purpose was to first identify “physical behavior phenotypes” from accelerometer-measured physical behaviors in pregnant women during the first trimester and secondly, to explore the associations between the identified phenotypes with demographic variables and body-mass-index (BMI).

Methods

Data were from the Glowing Study (gov ID: NCT01131117), collected between 2011 and 2017 with accelerometer-measured physical behaviors of women in their 12th week of pregnancy. Latent class analysis was used to identify patterns of total physical activity, sleep time, sedentary time, and variation in physical activity. Maternal Body-Mass-Index (BMI). BMI and sociodemographic characteristics were compared between physical behavior phenotypes.

Results

A total of 212 pregnant women were included in the study (mean age 30.2 years (range 22.1 to 42.4), mean days wear 4.3 (SD 0.7)). Three physical behavior phenotypes were identified from the four physical behavior constructs: low sedentary and stable activity (n = 136, 64%), variable activity (n = 39, 18%), high sedentary and low sleep (n = 37, 17%). BMI, race, and education were significantly different between the three phenotypes, with the low sedentary and stable activity phenotype having the lowest BMI and a higher percentage of white and college educated women.

Conclusions for Practice

Total physical activity and physical behavior phenotypes during the first trimester were associated with early-pregnancy BMI, race, and education. Future research should examine whether these physical behavior phenotypes are associated with maternal and child health outcomes.

Significance

What is already known on this subject? Physical activity and sleep are complex behaviors that influence health, however, little is known on patterns of these behaviors among women in their first trimesters.

What this study adds? Three physical behavior phenotypes were identified in women during their first trimester. Maternal BMI, race, and education differed between the groups. Examining these behaviors together may help to better understand health in pregnant women and to help improve physical behaviors.

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Data Availability

Data is available upon author request.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

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Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 5P20GM109096 and USDA-ARS Project 6026-51000-012-06 S. AA is partially funded by NIH R01 DK107516. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation, University of Arkansas, HPER 308I, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Erin K. Howie

  2. Curtin School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Erin K. Howie & Joanne A. McVeigh

  3. Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

    Alexander Nelson

  4. Movement Physiology Laboratory, School of Physiology, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Joanne A. McVeigh

  5. Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center & Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, Little Rock, AR, USA

    Aline Andres

  6. Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA

    Aline Andres

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  1. Erin K. Howie
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  2. Alexander Nelson
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  4. Aline Andres
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Contributions

EKH: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, resources, data curation, writing-original draft, visualization; AN: methodology, formal analysis, data curation, writing—review & editing; JAMV: formal analysis, data curation, writing—review & editing; AA: conceptualization, methodology, resources, writing—review & editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Erin K. Howie.

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The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Institutional Review Board.

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All mothers provided informed, written consent.

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Howie, E.K., Nelson, A., McVeigh, J.A. et al. Physical Activity, Sedentary and Sleep Phenotypes in Women During the First Trimester of Pregnancy. Matern Child Health J 27, 1834–1845 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-023-03745-x

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