Does physical activity in leisure time early in pregnancy reduce the incidence of preeclampsia or gestational hypertension?

OBJECTIVE: Assessment of the association of physical activity in leisure time with preeclampsia and gestational hypertension in nulliparous women. DESIGN: Population based prospective cohort study. SETTING: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. POPULATION: All pregnant women in Amsterdam between January 2003 and March 2004 who were nulliparous with a singleton pregnancy and who delivered after 24 weeks. DESIGN: At their first prenatal care visit, women were invited to fill out a questionnaire with sociodemographic and psychosocial variables. Physical activity in leisure time in the past week was measured using questions about walking, cycling, playing sports and other activities in leisure time. The amount of minutes and intensity of each activity was studied using four categories: no, low, moderate or high activity. By using multivariate logistic regression, we adjusted for sociodemographic and medical confounders. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incidence of preeclampsia and gestational hypertension. Results. A total of 12,377 women were invited with a response rate of 67%; 3,679 nulliparous women were included. The incidence of preeclampsia and gestational hypertension was 3.5% and 4.4%, respectively. The amount of time or intensity of physical activity in leisure time was not associated with a difference in risk of preeclampsia or gestational hypertension. CONCLUSION: Physical activity in leisure time early in pregnancy does not reduce the incidence of preeclampsia or gestational hypertension in an unselected population of nulliparous women.