OPALS Study. Version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Options in Pregnancy to Increase Actively Sitting (OPALS) Study
IRAS ID
228472
Contact name
R M Reynolds
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
All over the world obesity has been increasing and it is also affecting pregnant women. Obesity is associated with different adverse effects for pregnancy, for mother and babies, therefore actions should be taken to reduce the negative effects caused by obesity in pregnancy. So far most of interventions based on physical activity during gestation have failed to improve pregnancy outcomes. On the other hand it has been studied that general population spend more than 50% of their time awake on sedentary behaviours, which has been also observed among pregnant women. Also has been studied that too much time sedentary is other risk factor for health in general population, and even when it has not been studied in depth among pregnant women, some studies have observed adverse effects for pregnancy outcomes. Consequently we believe that increasing the energy expenditure and reducing sedentary time among obese pregnant women will improve pregnancy outcomes.
The study is based on a 3 months intervention designed with and for severely obese pregnant women (BMI>40kg/m²) who attend the Tommy's Antenatal Metabolic Clinic at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburg. The aim of the study is to assess the feasibility of the intervention, meanwhile the aim of the intervention is to increase participants energy expenditure and reduce the time sedentary. To achieve that we designed with obese pregnant women an intervention based on 6 exercises, to be performed 3 to 5 times a week for at least 12 weeks. As most exercises are meant to be done in a sitting position, they can be carried out during television watching.
All the exercises are well explained in a guide, and will be shown and practiced in the first appointment.
After 3 months participants will be asked to fill a questionnaire and give back filled the Activity Diary to assess the feasibility of the study.REC name
South East Scotland REC 02
REC reference
17/SS/0101
Date of REC Opinion
18 Aug 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion