REVIEW  EPIDEMIOLOGY AND CLINICAL MEDICINE Open access

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2023 July;63(7):852-63

DOI: 10.23736/S0022-4707.23.14578-6

Copyright © 2023 THE AUTHORS

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license which allows users to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the manuscript, as long as this is not done for commercial purposes, the user gives appropriate credits to the original author(s) and the source (with a link to the formal publication through the relevant DOI), provides a link to the license and indicates if changes were made.

language: English

Effects of aerobic exercise performed during pregnancy on hypertension and gestational diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Juan ZHANG ¹, Hang-Ping WANG ¹ ✉, Xin-Xu WANG ^{1, 2}

¹ Department of Kinesiology, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China; ² Department of Sports Training, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China

INTRODUCTION: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and gestational hypertension (GH) are the most common pregnancy complications, predisposing to adverse pregnancy outcomes and being a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality, often associated with significantly higher health risks for the mother and her offspring. The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate the effects of aerobic exercise performed during pregnancy on GDM, GH, and pregnancy outcomes.
EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: The databases PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, China Knowledge Network, Wan fang, and Wipu were searched for clinical randomized controlled trials of exercise interventions on GDM, GH, and pregnancy outcomes, and data were analyzed and systematically evaluated using RevMan 5.3 according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Meta-analysis showed that, in terms of pregnancy complications, aerobic exercise intervention reduced the incidence of maternal GDM better than the control group, with a statistically significant difference (OR=0.39, 95% CI: 0.30, 0.50, P<0.00001); aerobic exercise intervention reduced the incidence of maternal GH better than the control group, with a statistically significant difference (OR=0.38, 95% CI: 0.27, 0.54, P<0.00001).
CONCLUSIONS: The results in pregnancy suggest that aerobic exercise is advantageous for pregnant women, as it reduces the incidence of GDM and GH and improves the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes to a certain extent.

KEY WORDS: Diabetes, gestational; Hypertension, pregnancy-induced; Exercise; Meta-analysis