Abstract
Objectives:
to describe the prevalence of sufficient leisure-time physical activity (LPA) in the trimesters of pregnancy and to test its association with sociodemographic and contextual characteristics.
Methods:
cross-sectional study that in 2019 analyzed data from 3580 pregnant women residing in Santa Catarina, Brazil. LPA was categorized as “active” (150 minutes or more of LPA/week) and “inactive” (less than 150 minutes).
Results:
the prevalence for the recommended level of LPA was 15.3% (CI95%= 14.1-16.4) before pregnancy, gradually declining to 7.8% (CI95%= 7.3-8.7), 7.3% (CI95%= 6.58.2), and 5.8% (CI95%= 5.1-6.7) in the following trimesters of pregnancy. Higher level of education was associated with the four outcomes, increasing the chance of being active by 79% in the third trimester of pregnancy. In the second trimester, living in a neighborhood that stimulates physical activity increased the chance of being active by 39%. In the third trimester, having received guidance from a health professional was associated with an increase of 60% in the chance of practicing LPA.
Conclusion:
the prevalence of recommended LPA is low among pregnant women and living in a neighborhood favorable to outdoor practices, greater education level and receiving guidance from health professionals increased the chance of pregnant women to be active.
Key words
Leisure activities; Pregnancy; Neighborhood; Prenatal; Epidemiology