Abstract Physical inactivity during pregnancy is problematic and associated with adverse health outcomes, including increased blood loss during labor and pre-eclampsia. The purpose of the present study was to apply the behavioral economic framework to understand physical inactivity among pregnant women. We examine the factor structure of a novel hypothetical purchase task for physical inactivity in a cross-sectional survey study, as well as examine differences in the latent variable scores in a convenience sample of two distinct populations ( n = 68): pregnant veterans and nonveterans. Results showed that the purchase task was characterized by two latent factors: amplitude (i.e., intensity of demand for physical inactivity, α = 0.5) and persistence (i.e., demand sensitivity regarding physical inactivity, α = 0.9). After controlling for relevant demographic variables using linear regression analysis, veterans—compared to nonveterans—exhibited higher persistence (b = 1.6, p < 0.001) and amplitude scores (b = 1.2, p < 0.001). In summary, this study characterized a new behavioral economic measure of physical inactivity for pregnant women. Furthermore, we suggest that pregnant veterans may value physical inactivity more than pregnant nonveterans.
McDaniel et al. (Fri,) studied this question.