Physical Activity, Sedentary and Sleep Phenotypes in Women During the First Trimester of Pregnancy

Patterns of physical behaviors including physical activity, sedentary time, and sleep are unknown during pregnancy, but are likely to influence health outcomes. The purpose was to first identify "physical behavior phenotypes" from accelerometer-measured physical behaviors in pregnant women during the first trimester and secondly, to explore the associations between the identified phenotypes with demographic variables and body-mass-index (BMI).

Data were from the Glowing Study (gov ID: NCT01131117), collected between 2011 and 2017 with accelerometer-measured physical behaviors of women in their 12th week of pregnancy. Latent class analysis was used to identify patterns of total physical activity, sleep time, sedentary time, and variation in physical activity. Maternal Body-Mass-Index (BMI). BMI and sociodemographic characteristics were compared between physical behavior phenotypes.

A total of 212 pregnant women were included in the study (mean age 30.2 years (range 22.1 to 42.4), mean days wear 4.3 (SD 0.7)). Three physical behavior phenotypes were identified from the four physical behavior constructs: low sedentary and stable activity (n = 136, 64%), variable activity (n = 39, 18%), high sedentary and low sleep (n = 37, 17%). BMI, race, and education were significantly different between the three phenotypes, with the low sedentary and stable activity phenotype having the lowest BMI and a higher percentage of white and college educated women.

Total physical activity and physical behavior phenotypes during the first trimester were associated with early-pregnancy BMI, race, and education. Future research should examine whether these physical behavior phenotypes are associated with maternal and child health outcomes.