Neurodevelopmental outcome in 7-year-old children is not affected by exercise during pregnancy: follow up of a multicentre randomised controlled trial

Objective: To investigate whether regular moderate intensity exercise during pregnancy had adverse effect on neurodevelopment of offspring at 7 years of age.

Design: Follow up of a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Setting: St Olavs Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital and Stavanger University Hospital, Norway (2007-09).

Population: Women randomised to follow a 12-week structured exercise protocol or standard antenatal care during pregnancy.

Methods: At 7 years of age, neurodevelopmental outcome was assessed by the parent questionnaire Five-To-Fifteen (FTF), including motor skills, executive functions, perception, memory, language, social skills and possible emotional/behavioural problems.

Main outcome measure: Continuous and dichotomised (cut-off 90th centile) FTF scores.

Results: A total of 855 women were randomised to exercise (n = 429) or standard antenatal care (n = 426) during pregnancy. At follow up, 164 (38.2%) children born to mothers in the intervention group and 115 (27.0%) children born to mothers in the control group participated. We found no group differences in FTF scores or in the proportion of children with scores ≥90th centile. Stratified analyses by sex, subgroup analyses of women who adhered to the exercise protocol or sensitivity analyses excluding preterm children and/or children who had been admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit did not change the results.

Conclusions: In the present randomised controlled trial follow-up study, regular moderate intensity exercise during pregnancy did not have adverse effect on neurodevelopment of offspring at 7 years of age.

Tweetable abstract: Moderate intensity exercise during pregnancy had no adverse effect on neurodevelopment of offspring at 7 years of age.