Women who exercised three or more times per week during pregnancy were found to decrease the risk of their children developing asthma, according to a recent study.
In the prospective cohort study from the Kuopio Birth Cohort, published in Med, investigators examined the association between maternal physical activity during pregnancy and the development of asthma in offspring. The study followed 963 mother-infant pairs, assessing the impact of maternal exercise on childhood asthma risk between the ages of 5 and 7 years.
The investigators observed an association between women engaging in physical activity three or more times per week during pregnancy and a lower risk of their children developing asthma compared with those who exercised less frequently. The adjusted odds ratio for asthma in the children of mothers who exercised three or more times per week was 0.54 (95% confidence interval = 0.33–0.89, P = .02). This association remained consistent after adjusting for various maternal and environmental confounders, including prepregnancy body mass index, gestational age, smoking, and mode of delivery.
The investigators observed that women who engaged in physical activity three or more times per week during pregnancy had a lower likelihood of their child developing asthma by age 7 years compared with those who exercised less frequently. The study aligned with current guidelines from the World Health Organization, which currently recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week during pregnancy.
Full disclosures can be found in the published study.