Study: Exercise 3 Times Per Week During Pregnancy Associated With Reduced Risk of Asthma in Children

According to findings published in Med, the risk of asthma in a child can be reduced if the mother engages in frequent active physical exercise during pregnancy. Exercising at least 3 times per week was enough to reduce the risk of asthma in the mother’s child by nearly 50%.¹

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Previous findings have suggested that maternal exercise during pregnancy was associated with strengthened lung function in newborns, therefore, the investigators of the current study evaluated the associations between maternal exercise and offspring’s risk of asthma. This study population included 963 mother-infant pairs from the prospective Kuopio Birth Cohort study in Finland. Data on maternal physical activity during pregnancy, confounding factors, and children’s asthma at 5 to 7 years of age were obtained from the study birth registry and questionnaires.^1,2

Information regarding the open-ended response on the type of exercise was available for 890 of the 963 mothers. The most common forms of exercise reported by mothers were walking (34%), jogging (32%), muscle strengthening (29%), and group exercise classes or working out at home (22%), whereas other repeatedly reported sports included running (10%), swimming, aqua jogging or aqua gym (8%), dancing (5%), and riding (4%). In addition, maternal physical activity during pregnancy was associated positively with maternal education, gestational weight gain, and healthy eating habits. Conversely, negative associations were seen with maternal age, body mass index, previous deliveries, stress, and infections, as well as the child’s birth weight.²

According to the findings, mothers of children who developed asthma had reported a lower mean frequency of exercise per week during pregnancy (3.1 times) compared to mothers of children who did not develop asthma (3.5 times; p = .06). Additionally, asthma prevalence in children was higher among males (9%) compared with females (6%; p = .03), and it was also more common among the children who were born to mothers (p = .02) or fathers (p < .01) with asthma, as well as children among mothers who used oral antibiotics during pregnancy (p = .03). According to the investigators, there were no other tested variables that had a statistically significant association with asthma development in children.^1,2

“Our findings strongly suggest that maternal exercise during pregnancy has an independent positive effect on the fetus and on the later health of the child. We don’t yet know why maternal exercise manifests as a reduced risk of asthma in the child, but one possibility is that it supports fetal lung maturation,” Emma-Reetta Musakka, BM, MSc, doctoral researcher at University of Eastern Finland, said in a news release.¹

According to the investigators, the findings did not indicate that an increase in the amount of exercise beyond 3 times per week was associated with an even lower risk of asthma. They suggested that future research on the role of the amount and intensity of exercise during pregnancy in the prevention of asthma is needed to better understand these possible associations.^1,2 Women who are pregnant should engage in about 2.5 hours of moderate exercise per week, recommends the World Health Organization.¹

“Until today, avoidance of cigarette smoke during pregnancy has been among the only effective ways to reduce a child’s risk of asthma. Thus, it is intriguing that moderate maternal exercise during pregnancy may have an equally strong protective effect on a child’s asthma risk as if one of the parents quits smoking,” Pirkka Kirjavainen, PhD, the lead study researcher, said in the news release. “The findings are very promising in terms of asthma prevention. It is highly encouraging to see that by engaging in reasonable amounts of exercise, mothers can significantly influence not only their own health, but also the health of their child.”¹

REFERENCES

1. University of Eastern Finland. Maternal exercise during pregnancy may protect the child against asthma. News release. October 10, 2024. Accessed October 25, 2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1060842

2. Musakka ER, Ylilauri MPT, Jalanka J, et al. Maternal exercise during pregnancy is associated with reduced risk of asthma in the child: A prospective birth cohort study. Med. 2024. doi:10.1016/j.medj.2024.09.003