Objective: We aimed to describe maternal physical activity level from pre-pregnancy up to 3.5 years postpartum among Japanese women. Moreover, we explored the factors associated with keeping the level of physical activity lower after delivery.
Methods: A total of 1,874 women who agreed to participate in the Miyagi regional adjunct study of The Japan Environment and Children’s Study were included. Physical activity was measured before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and 1.5 and 3.5 years postpartum using IPAQ short version, and was classified into two categories: low physical activity and moderate-high physical activity. Factors that contributing to keeping the level of physical activity lower at 1.5 and 3.5 years postpartum were maternal age, marital status, education, working status, parity, re-pregnancy after the targeted child, pre-pregnancy BMI, exercise experience and physical activity before and during pregnancy. We performed a Poisson regression analysis.
Results: There were 969 (51.7%) women with lower physical activity level at pre-pregnancy, 1,209 (64.5%) during pregnancy and 1,724 (92.0%) at 1.5 years postpartum. In addition, there were 1,223 (65.3%) women with lower physical activity level at 3.5 years postpartum. Factors contributed to keeping the level of physical activity lower at 1.5 and 3.5 years postpartum were high maternal age, highly educated women, current worker, former worker and non-worker, no previous exercise experience, and low physical activity level before and during pregnancy.
Conclusion: Compared to pre-pregnancy, larger proportion of women had lower level of physical activity during pregnancy, and it was even higher at 1.5 years postpartum. At 3.5 years postpartum, many women still had lower level of physical activity. In addition, high maternal age, highly educated women, current worker, former worker and non-worker, no previous exercise experience, and low physical activity level before and during pregnancy were significantly likely to keep the level of physical activity lower at 1.5 and 3.5 years postpartum.
