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Observational Study
. 2022 Nov 16;17(11):e0276964.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276964. eCollection 2022.

The association between number and ages of children and the physical activity of mothers: Cross-sectional analyses from the Southampton Women's Survey

Rachel F Simpson  1 , Kathryn R Hesketh  1   2 , Sarah R Crozier  3   4 , Janis Baird  3   5 , Cyrus Cooper  3   5 , Keith M Godfrey  3   5 , Nicholas C Harvey  3   5 , Kate Westgate  1 , Hazel M Inskip  3   5 , Esther M F van Sluijs  1
Affiliations
Observational Study

The association between number and ages of children and the physical activity of mothers: Cross-sectional analyses from the Southampton Women's Survey

Rachel F Simpson et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Physical activity (PA) has many health benefits, but motherhood is often associated with reduced PA. Considering that ages and number of children may be associated with maternal PA, and that PA patterns may change as children transition to formal schooling, we aimed to investigate the associations between ages and number of children and device-measured maternal PA.

Methods: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted using data from 848 mothers from the Southampton Women's Survey at two different timepoints. Two-level random intercept linear models were used to investigate associations between ages (≤4y(ears) ("younger"), school-aged, both age groups) and number (1, 2, ≥3) of children, and their interaction, and accelerometer-assessed minutes of maternal moderate or vigorous PA (log-transformed MVPA) and light, moderate or vigorous PA (LMVPA).

Results: Women with any school-aged children engaged in more MVPA than those with only ≤4y (e.g. % difference in minutes of MVPA [95% confidence interval]: 46.9% [22.0;77.0] for mothers with only school-aged vs only ≤4y). Mothers with multiple children did less MVPA than those with 1 child (e.g. 12.5% [-1.1;24.3] less MVPA for those with 2 children). For mothers with multiple children, those with any school-aged children did less LMVPA than those with only ≤4y (e.g. amongst mothers with 2 children, those with only school-aged children did 34.0 [3.9;64.1] mins/day less LMVPA). For mothers with any ≤4y, those with more children did more LMVPA (e.g. amongst mothers with only ≤4y, those with 2 children did 42.6 [16.4;68.8] mins/day more LMVPA than those with 1 child).

Conclusions: Mothers with multiple children and only children aged ≤4y did less MVPA. Considering that many of these women also did more LMVPA than mothers with fewer or older children, interventions and policies are needed to increase their opportunities for higher intensity PA to maximise health benefits.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04715945.

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Conflict of interest statement

I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: CC received personal fees from Alliance for Better Bone Health, Amgen, Eli Lilly, GSK, Medtronic, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Servier, Takeda and UCB. KMG has received reimbursement for speaking at conferences sponsored by companies selling nutritional products, and is part of an academic consortium that has received research funding from Abbott Nutrition, Nestec, BenevolentAI Bio Ltd. and Danone. NCH has received consultancy, lecture fees and honoraria from Alliance for Better Bone Health, AMGEN, MSD, Eli Lilly, Servier, UCS, Shire, Consilient Healthcare, Kyowa Kirin and Internis Pharma. The remaining authors declare they have no competing interests. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. A flow diagram chart of SWS mothers in analyses.
*n = 621 for age 4y and n = 608 for age 6y. **n = 607 for age 4y and n = 592 for age 6y. ***n = 457 for age 4y and n = 525 for age 6y.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Association between ages of children and maternal LMVPA by number of children.
LMVPA = light, moderate or vigorous physical activity; 95%CI = 95% confidence interval. Models adjusted for age of mother, season, age 4y or age 6y survey, time of week.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Association between number of children and maternal LMVPA by ages of children.
LMVPA = light, moderate or vigorous physical activity; 95%CI = 95% confidence interval. Models adjusted for age of mother, maternal highest qualification level, living with father, season, age 4y or age 6y survey, time of week.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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