Grant: IPPH Travel Awards - CPHA Annual Conference

Introduction/contexte Past research shows that psychosocial stress and distress predict sedentary behavior, but few studies focus on pregnant women. Our objective was to analyze relationships between psychosocial stress and distress with sedentary behavior among pregnant women in Canada. Méthode: We analyzed objectively-measured sedentary behavior at 16-18, 24-26 and 32-24 weeks gestation in a sociodemographically diverse cohort of 70 women in Montreal Canada. Participants completed the Perceived Stress Questionnaire, and wore an accelerometer for 3 days that quantified sitting time. We used univariate general linear models to analyze relationships between perceived stress and sedentary behavior at each evaluation period. To assess generalizability, we analyzed relationships between psychological distress with self-reported leisure-time sedentary behavior among a sample representative of 166,095 women in the Canadian Community Health Survey. Résultats et analyse: We observed positive association between perceived stress and sitting time in the Montreal cohort, with small to moderate effect sizes (partial n2=0.08-0.16). We observed similar relationships in the nationwide sample, but with smaller effect sizes (partial n2=0.02). Conclusions et répercussions concernant les politiques, la pratique ou le pistes de recherche: Despite recommendations to reduce sedentary behavior during pregnancy, sedentarity among pregnant women remains high. Psychosocial stress represents one risk factor. Results might guide the development of more comprehensive interventions targeting both stress and sedentarity