Objective: To evaluate the total activity performed by women with low-risk pregnancy as well as translate and pursue a cross-cultural adaptation of the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ) to the Brazilian reality.
Design: We conducted a cross-sectional quantitative study including 305 women between 16 and 40 years of age with low-risk pregnancies.
Setting: The Department of Public Health, State University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil.
Methods: We applied an adapted version of PPAQ to assess the levels of physical activity and the intensity in the metabolic equivalent task (MET), which could be distinguished as follows: sedentary (< 1.5 METs), light (1.5-3.0 METs), moderate activity (3.0-6.0 METs), and vigorous activity (>6.0 METs). The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare energy expenditure (MET) with socio-demographic variables.
Results: More than half of the participants performed activities that were classified as light (51.4%). If we group the activities that were categorized as sedentary and light, this value increases to 74.7%, showing a high prevalence of insufficiently active pregnant women. Lower energy expenditure was observed in the third gestational trimester among pregnant women with lower educational level, single women, and mixed-race women (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: There is a prevalence of physical inactivity during the three trimesters of pregnancy. The results validate PPAQ for the Brazilian population to serve as a basis for future public policies focused on combating the health problems of mother-infant pairs.
Keywords: adaptation; energy expenditure; physical activity; pregnancy; questionnaire; Brazilian population..