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Positive attitudes toward weight gain in late pregnancy are associated with healthy eating behaviours

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Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

This cross-sectional study examined the associations between 3rd trimester attitudes toward weight gain and (1) pre-pregnancy BMI, (2) gestational weight gain (GWG) and (3) eating behaviours assessed in the 3rd trimester.

Methods

Seventy-nine (79) pregnant women completed the French version of the Pregnancy Weight Gain Attitude Scale (PWGAS), the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) and the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2) in their 3rd trimester. Total GWG was calculated as the difference between the weight recorded before delivery and self-reported pre-pregnancy weight.

Results

Most (55.6%) women gained weight above the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) recommendations, but there was no association between PWGAS scores and total or 3rd trimester GWG. Women with obesity had lower PWGAS total scores compared to women with overweight (3.48 ± 0.6 vs. 3.99 ± 0.3, p = 0.005), indicating more negative attitudes in women with obesity vs. overweight. Higher total PWGAS scores were positively correlated with intuitive eating scores (r = 0.28, p < 0.05), and inversely associated with unfavourable eating behaviours such as dietary restraint (r =  − 0.42, p < 0.01).

Conclusion

Women with positive attitudes toward weight gain reported healthier eating behaviours in late pregnancy, which remains to be confirmed in prospective studies. Interventions addressing body image issues during pregnancy may positively influence pregnant women’s health, including eating behaviours.

Level of evidence

Level III, case-control analytic study.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

No software application or custom code were used for these analyses.

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Funding

The ANGE project is funded by the Danone Institute of Canada (Grant Number: FO115961) and by startup founds (Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé & Fondation du CHU de Québec). C.S. received a graduate student award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FRN: GSD-167043). Funding did not play a role in the writing of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nutrition, Laval University, Québec City, Canada

    Claudia Savard, Catherine Bégin, Julie Robitaille, Andréanne Michaud, Simone Lemieux, Véronique Provencher & Anne-Sophie Morisset

  2. Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, NUTRISS Research Center, Laval University, Québec City, Canada

    Claudia Savard, Julie Robitaille, Andréanne Michaud, Simone Lemieux, Véronique Provencher & Anne-Sophie Morisset

  3. Endocrinology and Nephrology Unit, CHU of Québec-Université Laval Research Center, Québec City, Canada

    Claudia Savard, Anne-Sophie Plante, Julie Robitaille & Anne-Sophie Morisset

  4. Biology’s Formation and Research Unit, Clermont-Auvergne University, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Emmanuelle Yan

  5. School of Psychology, Laval University, Québec City, Canada

    Catherine Bégin

  6. Québec Heart and Lung Institute Research Center, Laval University, Québec City, Canada

    Andréanne Michaud

Authors
  1. Claudia Savard
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Contributions

All authors made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the manuscript, and all critically revised a first draft of the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors participated in the interpretation of data. All authors gave their approval of the manuscript’s final version to be published and, therefore, take public responsibility for the content of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Anne-Sophie Morisset.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the CHU de Québec – Université Laval research center’s ethical committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Savard, C., Yan, E., Plante, AS. et al. Positive attitudes toward weight gain in late pregnancy are associated with healthy eating behaviours. Eat Weight Disord 26, 2051–2058 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-01057-5

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