Re: Antenatal lifestyle advice for women who are overweight or obese: LIMIT randomised trial
This is an interesting article that reinforces the notion that there is still much more to be done to improve both maternal and foetal outcomes in pregnancy where a raised BMI is a risk factor.
Tobacco smoking in pregnancy, could be regarded as a similar modifiable risk factor, that can be subjected to intervention during the antenatal period. It is interesting to note, however, that psychosocial interventions have been seen to have a positive impact on smoking cessation with corresponding decreases in the associated complications such as low birth weight and preterm births. (1)
In this article, there was no mention of any evaluation of compliance with the agreed interventions, and whether prior to randomisation, there was any measure of desire to make lifestyle modifications during pregnancy. Additionally the level of education of the women on the potential positive outcomes of making changes was not commented upon. It would be interesting, to me, to have further information on whether these factors could impact outcomes.
It is not just in pregnancy, however, that the challenge of obesity persists, with well advocated approaches to intervention being unable to lead to reproducible better dietary and physical activity habits in the general adult population. (2)
References
(1) Chamberlain C, O'Mara-Eves A, Oliver S, Caird JR, Perlen SM, Eades SJ, Thomas J. Psychosocial interventions for supporting women to stop smoking in pregnancy. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2013, Issue 10. Art. No.: CD001055. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001055.pub4.
(2) Mastellos N, Gunn LH, Felix LM, Car J, Majeed A. Transtheoretical model stages of change for dietary and physical exercise modification in weight loss management for overweight and obese adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD008066. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD008066.pub3
Rapid Response:
Re: Antenatal lifestyle advice for women who are overweight or obese: LIMIT randomised trial
This is an interesting article that reinforces the notion that there is still much more to be done to improve both maternal and foetal outcomes in pregnancy where a raised BMI is a risk factor.
Tobacco smoking in pregnancy, could be regarded as a similar modifiable risk factor, that can be subjected to intervention during the antenatal period. It is interesting to note, however, that psychosocial interventions have been seen to have a positive impact on smoking cessation with corresponding decreases in the associated complications such as low birth weight and preterm births. (1)
In this article, there was no mention of any evaluation of compliance with the agreed interventions, and whether prior to randomisation, there was any measure of desire to make lifestyle modifications during pregnancy. Additionally the level of education of the women on the potential positive outcomes of making changes was not commented upon. It would be interesting, to me, to have further information on whether these factors could impact outcomes.
It is not just in pregnancy, however, that the challenge of obesity persists, with well advocated approaches to intervention being unable to lead to reproducible better dietary and physical activity habits in the general adult population. (2)
References
(1) Chamberlain C, O'Mara-Eves A, Oliver S, Caird JR, Perlen SM, Eades SJ, Thomas J. Psychosocial interventions for supporting women to stop smoking in pregnancy. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2013, Issue 10. Art. No.: CD001055. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001055.pub4.
(2) Mastellos N, Gunn LH, Felix LM, Car J, Majeed A. Transtheoretical model stages of change for dietary and physical exercise modification in weight loss management for overweight and obese adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD008066. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD008066.pub3
Competing interests: No competing interests