Postpartum Physical Activity Intervention Among Women With Gestational Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Aims

This parallel two-arm, randomized, controlled trial (RCT) tested the efficacy of wearing ankle weights during daily activities (e.g., childcare and housework) on body weight and composition changes, and glycemic, lipid, and inflammatory biomarkers in postpartum women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) during pregnancy.

Methods

The intervention group (1.1 kgs each, 2 hours/day, from 25-35 to 190-210 days’ postpartum) was compared to a standard-of-care control group in women with GDM during pregnancy. The primary outcome was body weight. Secondary outcomes included body composition and glycemic, lipid, and inflammatory biomarkers. Linear mixed models with time*treatment arm interaction compared changes in outcomes among the intervention group (ANK, n = 18) and control group (CTRL, n = 21), adjusted for clinic site and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) category.

Results

The intervention had no significant effect on weight change (mean (SD): 3.8 (1.8) kg for ANK vs 2.2 (1.6) kg for CTRL, P-for-interaction = 0.61) or percent body fat (−0.6 (0.9) for ANK vs −1.5 (0.8) for CTRL, P-for-interaction = 0.52). Both groups reduced their total cholesterol, but there was no intervention effect on this change (−25.3 (7.3) mg/dL for ANK vs −18.5 (6.7) mg/dL for CTRL, P-for-interaction = 0.40) or on other secondary outcomes. Registered under Physical Activity Intervention for Gestational Diabetes (GDM) on Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03664089 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03664089?term=NCT03664089&rank=1).