The Efficacy of Light-to-moderate Resistance Training in Sedentary Pregnant Women

NCT ID: NCT03705741

Last Updated: 2025-04-17

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: TERMINATED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 120 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2018-11-05
• Study Completion Date: 2025-04-15

Brief Summary

Maintaining a physically active lifestyle is associated with many health benefits, including lower risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, some type of cancer, and depression . Pregnant, healthy women are recommended to do 30 minutes or more of light to moderate exercise a day, although most women in the Western world do not follow current recommendations and decrease their exercise level.

Benefits of exercise during pregnancy are several, including a protective effect against the development of gestational diabetes mellitus, reduced pregnancy related low back pain, and risk of caesarean delivery. On the contrary, a recent review concludes that sedentary behaviors are associated with higher levels of C Reactive Protein and LDL Cholesterol, a larger newborn abdominal circumference, and macrosomia.

Previous studies show that exercise during pregnancy is associated with improvements in psychological well-being among previously sedentary women.

Only a few RCT's have studied resistance exercise during pregnancy. These studies have found reduced fatigue and reduced need of insulin among women with gestational diabetes mellitus who did resistance exercise, with no adverse effects on fetus or the pregnant woman.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of regular light -to-moderate resistance exercise among sedentary pregnant woman, with regard to fatigue, health related quality of life, pain location and intensity, body weight gain, blood pressure, and childbirth outcomes.

Conditions

Pregnancy Related; Sedentary Lifestyle

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Exercise group

Resistance exercise twice a week

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Resistance exercise

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Resistance exercise twice a week during pregnancy week 23-34.

Control group

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Resistance exercise

Resistance exercise twice a week during pregnancy week 23-34.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Single pregnancy and ≥18 of age
• Ability to understand verbal and written Swedish
• Inclusion during gestational week 20+0-20+6.

Exclusion Criteria

• Follows the recommendation regarding contraindications according to the American Collage of Obstetricians and Gynecologists 2002
• Severe pain from the pelvic or the back
• Regular exercise >150 minutes per week the last six months

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: FEMALE
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Värmland County Council, Sweden

OTHER_GOV

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Ylva Karolina Petrov Fieril

Principal Investigator, Fysiotherapist, PhD

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Fysioterapimottagningen Gripen

Karlstad, , Sweden

Countries

Sweden

Other Identifiers

2018/246

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id