Reducing postpartum weight retention – a pilot trial in primary health care

doi:10.1186/1475-2891-6-21

Nutrition Journal

Volume 6

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Kinnunen TI
Pasanen M
Aittasalo M
Fogelholm M
Weiderpass E
Luoto R

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Pasanen M
Aittasalo M
Fogelholm M
Weiderpass E
Luoto R
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Research

Reducing postpartum weight retention – a pilot trial in primary health care

Tarja I Kinnunen¹ , Matti Pasanen¹ , Minna Aittasalo¹ , Mikael Fogelholm¹^,2 , Elisabete Weiderpass³^,4^,5 and Riitta Luoto¹^,6

¹UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research, PO Box 30, 33501 Tampere, Finland

²Research Unit, Pirkanmaa Hospital District, Tampere, Finland

³Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

⁴Department of Etiological Research, Institute of Population-Based Cancer Research, Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo, Norway

⁵Department of Genetical Epidemiology, Folkhalsan Research Center, Samfundet Folkhälsan, Helsinki, Finland

⁶Tampere School of Public Health, the University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

author email corresponding author email

Nutrition Journal 2007, 6:21doi:10.1186/1475-2891-6-21


Published:	10 September 2007

Abstract

Background

Postpartum weight retention may contribute to the development of obesity. We studied whether individual counselling on diet and physical activity from 2 to 10 months postpartum has positive effects on diet and leisure time physical activity and increases the proportion of primiparas returning to their pre-pregnancy weight.

Methods

A controlled trial including ninety-two postpartum primiparas was conducted in three intervention and three control child health clinics in primary health care in Finland. The intervention included individual counselling on diet and physical activity during five routine visits to a public health nurse; the controls received the usual care.

Results

In total, 50% of the intervention group and 30% of the control group returned to their pre-pregnancy weight (weight retention ≤ 0 kg) by 10 months postpartum (p = 0.06). The confounder-adjusted odds ratio for returning to pre-pregnancy weight was 3.89 (95% CI 1.16–13.04, p = 0.028) for the intervention group compared with the controls. The mean proportion of high-fibre bread (of total weekly amount of bread) increased by 16.1% (95% CI 4.3–27.9) by 10 months postpartum in the intervention group compared with the controls when adjusted for confounders (p = 0.008). No significant differences were observed in changes in leisure time physical activity between the groups.

Conclusion

The intervention increased the proportion of primiparas returning to pre-pregnancy weight and the proportion of high-fibre bread in their diet. Larger randomized controlled trials are needed to show whether counselling can improve dietary and leisure time physical activity habits in postpartum women and also to confirm the results concerning the effect on reducing postpartum weight retention.

Trial registration

Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN21512277