TOP LINE:
Digital lifestyle coaching through the Smarter Pregnancy program reduces maternal blood pressure (BP) by approximately 2 mmHg during the first trimester of pregnancy. The program improves lifestyle behaviors through personalized coaching on vegetable and fruit consumption, smoking cessation and alcohol abstinence.
METHODOLOGY:
- Researchers analyzed data from the Rotterdam periconception cohort between 2010 and 2019, including 132 pregnant women who used Smarter Pregnancy for 6 to 24 weeks in the intervention group and 1,091 pregnant women in the control group.
- Participant outcomes included changes in systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure from baseline to first trimester measurements, with a median gestational age of 7 weeks at baseline.
- The analysis tracked lifestyle behaviors in the intervention group at 12 and 24 weeks using risk scores for vegetables, fruits, smoking and alcohol consumption.
- Multivariate analysis adjusted for baseline blood pressure measurements, age, gestational age, geographic origin, parity, and mode of conception to assess program effectiveness.
TAKE AWAY:
- The intervention group demonstrated significant reductions in systolic (β, −2.34 mmHg; 95% CI, −4.67 to −0.01; P. = 0.049), diastolic (β, −2.00 mmHg; 95% CI, −3.57 to −0.45; P. = 0.012) and mean arterial BP (β, −2.22 mmHg; 95% CI, −3.81 to −0.52; P. = 0.011) compared to controls.
- Among women who received assisted reproductive technology (ART), significant reductions were observed in diastolic blood pressure (β, −2.38 mmHg; 95% CI, −4.20 to −0.56 ) and mean arterial (β, −2.63 mmHg; 95% CI, −4.61 to −0.56).
- Program use was associated with decreased lifestyle risk scores at 12 weeks (β, -0.84; 95% CI, -1.19 to -0.49) and 24 weeks ( β, -1.07; 95% CI, -1.44 to -0.69), indicating improvement. lifestyle behaviors.
- Lifestyle risk scores decreased significantly in the ART and natural pregnancy subgroups after program completion.
IN PRACTICE:
“The results suggest that Smarter Pregnancy can be used to coach women on healthy lifestyle behaviors as early as the preconception period to improve blood pressure outcomes.” It should be noted that although implementing the program during the first trimester seems easier, initiating lifestyle coaching from the preconception period can act as a preventative measure against adverse health effects,” the authors wrote. authors of the study.
SOURCE:
The study was led by Batoul Hojeij, PhD, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was published online in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
BOUNDARIES:
According to the authors, participants in the intervention group could have had a healthier lifestyle due to their motivation to use a digital coaching program. The sample size of naturally conceived pregnancies in the intervention group was small (n = 41), reducing statistical power for subgroup analysis. The high percentage of missing data for baseline blood pressure measurements (64%) could have affected statistical power and led to potential bias, although multiple imputations were used to address this limitation.
DISCLOSURES:
This study was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (DohART-NET) and the Erasmus MC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Kevin D Sinclair, PhD, DSc, has received funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.