TY - JOUR T1 - Physical exercise programme during pregnancy decreases perinatal depression risk: a randomised controlled trial JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 348 LP - 353 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2017-098926 VL - 53 IS - 6 AU - Marina Vargas-Terrones AU - Ruben Barakat AU - Belen Santacruz AU - Irene Fernandez-Buhigas AU - Michelle F Mottola Y1 - 2019/03/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/6/348.abstract N2 - Introduction The incidence of depression is high during the perinatal period. This mood disorder can have a significant impact on the mother, the child and the family.Objective To examine the effect of an exercise programme during pregnancy on the risk of perinatal depression.Methods Healthy women who were <16 weeks pregnant were randomly assigned to two different groups. Women in the intervention group participated in a 60 min exercise programme throughout pregnancy, 3 days per week, which was conducted from October 2014 to December 2016. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale was used to measure the risk of depression at the beginning of the study (12–16 weeks), at gestational week 38 and at 6 weeks postpartum.Results One hundred and twenty-four pregnant women were allocated to either the intervention (IG=70) or the control (CG=54) group. No differences were found in the percentage of depressed women at baseline (20% vs 18.5%) (χ2=0.043; p=0.836). A smaller percentage of depressed women were identified in the IG compared with the CG at 38 gestational weeks (18.6% vs 35.6%) (χ2=4.190; p=0.041) and at 6 weeks postpartum (14.5% vs 29.8%) (χ2=3.985; p=0.046) using the per-protocol analysis. No significant differences were found using the intention-to-treat analyses, except in the multiple imputation analysis at week 38 (18.6% vs 34.4%) (χ2=4.085; p=0.049).Conclusion An exercise programme performed during pregnancy may reduce the prevalence of depression in late pregnancy and postpartum.Trial registration number NCT02420288; Results. ER -