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Moderate to vigorous physical activity benefits reflex control of BP during pregnancy
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Increased rates of moderate to vigorous physical activity may be beneficial for BP reflex control during pregnancy, but the reduction of sedentary behavior had little effect, according to data published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
“Guidelines around the world recommend that women without contraindication exercise during pregnancy,” Margie H. Davenport, PhD, assistant professor of kinesiology, sport and recreation at the University of Alberta, told Cardiology Today. “This is based on a large body of literature supporting the health benefits of prenatal exercise. We know that prenatal exercise reduces the risk of developing hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (gestational hypertension and preeclampsia) by up to 40%. However, we don’t understand the mechanisms underlying this risk reduction.”
To determine the independent influences of moderate to vigorous physical activity and sedentary behavior during pregnancy on reflex control of BP, the researchers analyzed 58 third-trimester normotensive pregnant women.
Using Actigraph accelerometry, the researchers collected objective measures of moderate to vigorous physical activity and sedentary behavior for 7 days. They also collected heart rate and BP data. The outcomes of interest were cardiovagal baroreflex gain and mean arterial pressure.
According to the results, participants spent 67.5 ± 7.9% of their day sedentary and performed a total of 68.6 ± 91.9 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, each session lasting approximately 10 minutes.
There was no correlation between sedentary behavior and cardiovagal baroreflex gain (P = .793) or mean arterial pressure (P = .803). However, there was a positive association between moderate to vigorous physical activity and cardiovagal baroreflex gain (P = .016), but not mean arterial pressure (P = .389), according to the researchers.
There remained a significant association between moderate to vigorous physical activity and cardiovagal baroreflex gain after controlling for age, prepregnancy BMI, gestational age and wear time (P = .013), Sobierajski and colleagues wrote. This may indicate women who engaged in greater amounts of moderate to vigorous physical activity had increased cardiovagal baroreflex gain, they wrote.
“This project demonstrated that prenatal exercise but not the reduction of sedentary behaviors is beneficial for reflex control of blood pressure during pregnancy,” Davenport said in an interview. “This means that more intense levels of activity are associated with improved cardiac responses (heart rate) which act to maintain blood pressure control.”– by Dave Quaile
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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