Postpartum sedentary behaviour and pelvic floor support: A prospective cohort study

ABSTRACT

We evaluated the association between sedentary time and pelvic floor support in primiparas delivered vaginally. The 532 participants (29.2 ± 4.9 years) wore wrist accelerometers 6 months postpartum to assess sedentary time, light physical activity (LPA) and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). We assessed pelvic floor support 1 year postpartum, considered worse if vaginal walls or apex prolapsed to or beyond the hymen. We used multivariable isotemporal substitution analyses to determine the prevalence of worse support when replacing sedentary time with equal time spent in either LPA or MVPA. In 1 year, 9.4% demonstrated worse pelvic floor support. Decreasing sedentary time by 30 min/day with a concomitant increase in MVPA, controlling for LPA, was associated with increased prevalence of worse support (PR 1.43 (95% CI 1.15, 1.77), P < 0.01). Decreasing the sedentary time by 30 min/day with a concomitant increase in LPA, controlling for MVPA, was not significant (PR 0.89 (95% CI 0.80, 0.99), P = 0.04, > pre-set alpha of 0.02). Increasing MVPA while decreasing LPA, controlling for sedentary time, also increased the prevalence of worse support (PR 1.66 (95% CI 1.28, 2.16), P < 0.001). In conclusion, decreasing sedentary time increased the prevalence of worse pelvic floor support when replaced by MVPA, but not LPA.

KEYWORDS:

• Cohort
• physical activity
• isotemporal substitution analysis
• vaginal delivery
• pelvic organ prolapse

Acknowledgments

The authors express gratitude to the women who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2023.2202063.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development under Grant 1P01HD080629; the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, under Grant 5UL1TR001067-05 (formerly 8UL1TR000105 and UL1RR025764); and the National Institutes of Health under Shared Instrumentation Grant 1S10OD021644-01A1. The contents of this work are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.