EVALUATION OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY LEVEL IN OVERWEIGHT PREGNANT WOMEN

Pregnancy is one of the most important lifecycles in women's lives, which is
associated with pregnancy overweighting. The aim of this study was to evaluate the nutritional status
and level of physical activity in pregnant women with overweight referred to Urmia health centers.
Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 120 overweight pregnant women
referred to six health centers in Urmia. Eligible subjects were included according to their socioeconomic
status from three different strata and via random selections (20 pregnant women from each center).
Therefore, written consent was obtained from each subject, individually. Demographic characteristics,
anthropometric measures, nutritional status, and physical activity levels were recorded and evaluated
via appropriate tools. Data were analyzed by SPSS-20 software.
Results: The mean age of the sample population was 27.32 ± 3.74 years. The mean weight and BMI in
this population were 69.29 ± 4.91 and 27.15 ± 1.36 respectively. The average daily energy intake level
was 1974.95 ± 589.85 kcal/day. Meat (3.92 ± 2.02) and oil (3.34 ± 5.07) dietary group intakes were
more than the daily recommended allowances. Also for the bread and cereals (4.59 ± 10.79) was the
same trend, while the intakes from dairy (1.84 ± 1.86), fruit (2.71 ± 3.71) and vegetable groups
(1.79±3.4) were found to be lower than the recommended daily allowance level. The average total
physical activity was 1.14 ± 2.65 met / min. The average total daily activity was 36.7 ± 85.23 met/min.
The highest level of weekly physical activity was allocated to home (56.10 ± 27.89) and light
(21.04±47.71) activity types. The lowest amount was for exercise activity types (1.57 ± 3.2 met/day).
Conclusion: The results from the current study showed that the most frequent type of done physical
activity by women during pregnancy was light and home physical activity types. The consumption of
milk, dairy products, and fruits plus vegetables were lower than the recommended allowances for the
studied pregnant women. It seems that educational programs with focuses on the diversities in dietary
intakes and physical activity levels in pregnant women will be cost-benefit programs