Monitored home-based with or without face-to-face exercise for maternal mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Despite the known beneficial effects of exercise, most pregnant women do not exercise regularly. Most studies on exercise have been conducted on supervised exercise and there is limited evidence regarding the adherence and effect of other exercise programs on pregnancy outcomes. Therefore, we aimed to investigate adherence to a face-to-face plus monitored home exercise program versus a monitored home-based exercise program on its own during pregnancy. In addition, effects of these two exercise programs on women’s mental health during pregnancy and postpartum (primary outcomes) and on some other maternal and neonatal outcomes (secondary outcomes) will be assessed.

Methods

In this superiority trial with three parallel arms, 150 women at 12–18 weeks of gestation will be randomised equally into three groups (face-to-face plus monitored home exercise, only monitored home-based exercise, and control). The exercise programs will be performed up to the 38^th week of gestation during which participants will be assessed at specific intervals during the pregnancy, and post-partum and followed up until six months after childbirth. The exercise diary will be used to assess the adherence. The Edinburgh Depression Scale and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule will be used to assess prenatal and postnatal depression and affect, respectively.

Discussion

This study reflects the feasibility and acceptance of two exercise programs for pregnant women and their effects on important outcomes. If these programs are followed properly and effectively, pregnant women’s health can be improved using these methods at a lower cost compared to the conventional supervised exercise program.

KEYWORDS:

• Home-based exercise
• monitored exercise
• mental health
• pregnancy
• birth weight
• randomised trial

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and materials

The datasets and materials used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Trial status

Recruitment of participants began in December 2020 and ended in June 2021. Data collection is expected to end by June 2022.

Author contributions

All of the authors contributed to the conception and design of the study. AV wrote the first draft of the paper under the supervision of SMAC. SMAC received a financial grant for the study (Grant no. 65,607). SMAC, SAA, MM, and FG revised the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences [65607].