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. 2012 Jan;9(1):5-20.
doi: 10.1123/jpah.9.1.5.

Self-Reported and objectively measured physical activity among a cohort of postpartum women: the PIN Postpartum Study

Kelly R Evenson  1 , Amy H Herring, Fang Wen
Affiliations

Self-Reported and objectively measured physical activity among a cohort of postpartum women: the PIN Postpartum Study

Kelly R Evenson et al. J Phys Act Health. 2012 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Few studies measure physical activity objectively or at multiple time points during postpartum. We describe physical activity at 3- and 12-months postpartum among a cohort of women using both self-reported and objective measures.

Methods: In total, 181 women completed the 3-month postpartum measures, and 204 women completed the 12-month postpartum measures. Participants wore an ActiGraph accelerometer for 1 week and completed in-home interviews that included questions on physical activity. A cohort of 80 women participated at both time points. Poisson regression models were used to determine whether physical activity differed over time for the cohort.

Results: For the cohort, average counts/minute were 364 at 3-months postpartum and 394 at 12-months postpartum. At both time periods for the cohort, vigorous activity averaged 1 to 3 minutes/day, and moderate activity averaged 16 minutes/day. Sedentary time averaged 9.3 hours at 3-months postpartum and 8.8 hours at 12-months postpartum, out of a 19-hour day. Average counts/minute increased and sedentary behavior declined from 3- to 12-months postpartum.

Conclusion: Interventions are needed to help women integrate more moderate to vigorous physical activity and to capitalize on the improvements in sedentary behavior that occur during postpartum.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cumulative proportion of postpartum participants wearing the accelerometer by time of day, separately for weekdays and weekends. The top graph represents 3-months postpartum women (n=181) and the bottom graph represents 12-months postpartum women (n=204).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proportion of imputed data by time of day at 3-months (top graph) and 12-months (bottom graph) postpartum (sample size for both figures is on the cohort of 80 women using the 10 imputed datasets)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Box and whisker plots of average moderate to vigorous physical activity per day from the accelerometer using Troiano et al and Swartz et al cutpoints at 3- and 12-months postpartum (n=80)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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