Background: Pregnancy is a good time to develop healthy lifestyle habits including regular exercise and good\r\nnutrition. Programs of physical exercise for pregnant women have been recommended; however, there are few\r\nreferences on this subject in the literature. The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and\r\npractice of pregnant women with respect to appropriate physical exercise during pregnancy, and also to\r\ninvestigate why some women do not exercise during pregnancy.\r\nMethods: A descriptive study was conducted in which 161 women of 18 to 45 years of age were interviewed in\r\nthe third trimester of pregnancy. These women were receiving prenatal care at National Health Service (SUS)\r\nprimary healthcare units and had no pathologies for which physical exercise would constitute a risk. The women\r\nwere selected at an ultrasonography clinic accredited to the SUS in Campinas, S�£o Paulo. A previously elaborated\r\nknowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) questionnaire was used to collect data, which were then stored in an\r\nEpinfo database. Statistical analysis was conducted using Pearsonâ��s chi-square test and Fisherâ��s exact test to\r\nevaluate the association between the study variables (p < 0.05).\r\nResults: Almost two-thirds (65.6%) of the women were sufficiently informed about the practice of physical exercise\r\nduring pregnancy and the vast majority (93.8%) was in favor of it. Nevertheless, only just over 20% of the women\r\nin this sample exercised adequately. Significant associations were found between an adequate knowledge of\r\nphysical exercise during pregnancy and education level (p = 0.0014) and between the adequate practice of\r\nphysical exercise during pregnancy and having had fewer pregnancies (p = 0.0001). Lack of time and feeling tired\r\nand uncomfortable were the principal reasons given by the women for not exercising.\r\nConclusion: These results suggest that womenâ��s knowledge concerning the practice of physical exercise during\r\npregnancy is reasonable and their attitude is favorable; however, relatively few actually exercise during pregnancy.
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