RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Prenatal exercise is not associated with fetal mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis
JF British Journal of Sports Medicine
JO Br J Sports Med
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine
SP 108
OP 115
DO 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099773
VO 53
IS 2
A1 Davenport, Margie H
A1 Kathol, Amariah J
A1 Mottola, Michelle F
A1 Skow, Rachel J
A1 Meah, Victoria L
A1 Poitras, Veronica J
A1 Jaramillo Garcia, Alejandra
A1 Gray, Casey E
A1 Barrowman, Nick
A1 Riske, Laurel
A1 Sobierajski, Frances
A1 James, Marina
A1 Nagpal, Taniya
A1 Marchand, Andree-Anne
A1 Slater, Linda G
A1 Adamo, Kristi B
A1 Davies, Gregory A
A1 Barakat, Ruben
A1 Ruchat, Stephanie-May
YR 2019
UL http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/2/108.abstract
AB Objective To perform a systematic review of the relationship between prenatal exercise and fetal or newborn death.Design Systematic review with random-effects meta-analysis and meta-regression.Data sources Online databases were searched up to 6 January 2017.Study eligibility criteria Studies of all designs were included (except case studies) if they were published in English, Spanish or French and contained information on the population (pregnant women without contraindication to exercise), intervention (subjective or objective measures of frequency, intensity, duration, volume or type of exercise, alone [“exercise-only”] or in combination with other intervention components [eg, dietary; “exercise + co-intervention”]), comparator (no exercise or different frequency, intensity, duration, volume and type of exercise) and outcome (miscarriage or perinatal mortality).Results Forty-six studies (n=2 66 778) were included. There was ‘very low’ quality evidence suggesting no increased odds of miscarriage (23 studies, n=7125 women; OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.63 to 1.21, I2=0%) or perinatal mortality (13 studies, n=6837 women, OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.49 to 1.52, I2=0%) in pregnant women who exercised compared with those who did not. Stratification by subgroups did not affect odds of miscarriage or perinatal mortality. The meta-regressions identified no associations between volume, intensity or frequency of exercise and fetal or newborn death. As the majority of included studies examined the impact of moderate intensity exercise to a maximum duration of 60 min, we cannot comment on the effect of longer periods of exercise.Summary/conclusions Although the evidence in this field is of ‘very low’ quality, it suggests that prenatal exercise is not associated with increased odds of miscarriage or perinatal mortality. In plain terms, this suggests that generally speaking exercise is ‘safe’ with respect to miscarriage and perinatal mortality.