The safety and efficacy of supervised exercise on pregnant women with overweight/obesity: A systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials
Harry Freitag Luglio Muhammad, Adriyan Pramono, Muhammad Nurhadi Rahman
Abstract
Behavioural modification through physical activity and dietary counselling has been shown to have beneficial effects on pregnant women with overweight/obesity. Whether exercise alone with supervision (ie, supervised exercise) may also benefit for pregnant women with overweight/obesity is still unknown. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of supervised exercise on pregnant women with overweight/obesity. PubMed, Cochrane library, Embase (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), and Web of Science were used to search publications using a combination of main keywords "obesity", "exercise", "pregnant women", and "randomised controlled trial". From a total of 740 publications, 11 randomized controlled trials were included. All studies reported no adverse effects of supervised exercise on pregnant women with overweight/obesity. Of interest, this meta-analysis showed gestational weight gain (GWG) was lower in the supervised exercise group as compared to control (Mean difference 0.88 kg, 95%CI -1.73 to -0.03, P = .04). There was a significant effect of supervised exercise on post-prandial blood glucose (MD: -0.24, 95%CI -0.47 to -0.01, P = .04) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (MD: -0.18, 95%CI -0.30 to -0.05, P = .005). There were no differences in risk of gestational diabetes mellitus, pre-eclampsia/gestational hypertension, and newborn outcomes (eg, infants birth weight, preterm birth incident, and gestational age) (all P > .05). This meta-analysis might suggest beneficial effects of supervised exercise on pregnant women with overweight/obesity to prevent excessive GWG, attenuates insulin resistance, and the post-prandial blood glucose level.