BACKGROUND: Most pregnant women do not reach the minimum recommended level of 150 min/week of moderate physical activity (MPA). Most previous studies of correlates focused on leisure time physical activity (LTPA) ignoring other domains of MPA (occupational, household/child care, transportation). This article aims to i) estimate the proportion of French pregnant women meeting physical activity (PA) guidelines during the last trimester of pregnancy, hypothesised to vary depending on the domains of MPA considered; and ii) explore differences in sociodemographic, and maternal health and behavioural correlates, whenever only LTPA or overall MPA is considered. METHODS: percentile) were assessed by multivariable logistic regressions. RESULTS: Most of the pregnant women reported engaging in LTPA during the last three months of pregnancy (92.3%), but only 28.0% met guidelines for LTPA. Adding MPA from other domains (transportation, household/caregiving, occupational) drastically increased this estimate (up to 85.6%). Primiparity, higher education and income levels, and a higher number of prenatal classes attended were positively associated with meeting guidelines for LTPA, but negatively associated with having high overall MPA levels. Younger age was positively associated with high MPA whereas not working during the last trimester of pregnancy was negatively associated with high MPA. Pre-pregnancy overweight/obesity were negatively associated with meeting guidelines for LTPA. Being single was positively associated with both outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Most sociodemographic and maternal correlates examined had differing associations with engaging in sufficient LTPA or having a high overall MPA. In particular, associations with indicators of social vulnerability were in opposite directions. These results call for continuing efforts to promote PA during pregnancy while inviting to specify which activities (type/context) provide optimum health benefits. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not applicable.
Aubert et al. (Thu,) studied this question.