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. 2025 Jan 11:50:102970.
doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2025.102970. eCollection 2025 Feb.

Danish mothers of young children adhere less to international physical activity guidelines compared with mothers of older children

Solvej Videbæk Bueno  1   2 , Sebastian Deisting Skejø  1   2 , Rasmus Oestergaard Nielsen  1   2 , Knud Ryom  1 , Per Kallestrup  1   2 , Peter Elsborg  3 , Christina Bjørk Petersen  3   4 , Julie Sandell Jacobsen  2   5
Affiliations

Danish mothers of young children adhere less to international physical activity guidelines compared with mothers of older children

Solvej Videbæk Bueno et al. Prev Med Rep. .

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate if the prevalence proportion of non-adherence to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines of a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week varied among mothers based on the age of their youngest child. Additionally, the study aimed to investigate whether such association varied by parity.

Methods: The population-based design used self-reported physical activity data on 8774 Danish mothers who participated in the Danish National Health Survey 2021. The primary outcome was weekly hours of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, dichotomized into adherers or non-adherers to WHO guidelines.

Results: The prevalence proportions of non-adherence ranged from 60 % to 70 %. Significantly higher prevalence proportions of non-adherers were observed among mothers of infants and toddlers aged 0-3 years compared with mothers of school-age children. When stratified by parity, multipara mothers with infants aged 0-6 months reported the highest prevalence proportion (74 %) of non-adherence among all subgroups.

Conclusion: Due to the health benefits derived from adequate levels of physical activity, the large proportion of mothers not adhering to the WHO physical activity guidelines is a public health concern. The findings of the present study suggest a need for improving interventions and policies to enhance physical activity levels in mothers, especially mothers of infants and toddlers.

Keywords: Exercise; Health priorities; Infant; Mothers; Parity; Women's health.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of sampling process for mothers participating in the Danish National Health Survey 2021. *Non-adherence to the World Health Organization physical activity guideline of a weekly minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Proportions and 95 % confidence intervals of Danish mothers not adhering to the World Health Organization guidelines of a weekly minimum of 150 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity across the five youngest child age groups. * The proportion and 95 % confidence intervals of Danish nulliparous women not adhering to the World Health Organization guidelines of a weekly minimum of 150 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (results published in a previous paper)a. a. Bueno SV, Nielsen RO, Kallestrup P, et al. Parous women perform less moderate to vigorous physical activity than their nulliparous peers: a population-based study in Denmark. Public Health 2024; 231: 47–54.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Proportions and 95 % confidence intervals of Danish mothers not adhering to the World Health Organization guidelines of a weekly minimum of 150 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity across the five youngest child age groups, stratified by parity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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