The association between number and ages of children and the physical activity of mothers: Cross-sectional analyses from the Southampton Women's Survey.
Creators: name: Simpson, Rachel F
name: Hesketh, Kathryn R
name: Crozier, Sarah R
name: Baird, Janis
name: Cooper, Cyrus
name: Godfrey, Keith M
name: Harvey, Nicholas C
name: Westgate, Kate
name: Inskip, Hazel M
name: Van Sluijs, Esther MF
Publisher: name: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Research Article
subject: Medicine and health sciences
subject: People and places
subject: Engineering and technology
subject: FOS: Engineering and technology
subject: Biology and life sciences

description: Acknowledgements: We thank the participants in the SWS for their commitment to and involvement in the study, and the dedicated team of research nurses and ancillary staff for their assistance in collecting and processing the data. The authors would also like to thank Stephanie Hollidge (MRC Epidemiology Unit) for her assistance in the processing of the physical activity data.
description: Funder: Medical Research Council; funder-id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265
description: Funder: British Heart Foundation
description: Funder: Food Standards Agency; funder-id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000354
description: Funder: British Lung Foundation; funder-id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000351
description: Funder: Arthritis Research UK
description: Funder: National Osteoporosis Society; funder-id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000300
description: Funder: International Osteoporosis Foundation; funder-id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100007478
description: Funder: Cohen Trust
description: Funder: NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre
description: Funder: National Institute of Health Research Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, Oxford
description: Funder: National Institute of Health Research Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit
description: BACKGROUND: Physical activity (PA) has many health benefits, but motherhood is often associated with reduced PA. Considering that ages and number of children may be associated with maternal PA, and that PA patterns may change as children transition to formal schooling, we aimed to investigate the associations between ages and number of children and device-measured maternal PA. METHODS: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted using data from 848 mothers from the Southampton Women's Survey at two different timepoints. Two-level random intercept linear models were used to investigate associations between ages (≤4y(ears) ("younger"), school-aged, both age groups) and number (1, 2, ≥3) of children, and their interaction, and accelerometer-assessed minutes of maternal moderate or vigorous PA (log-transformed MVPA) and light, moderate or vigorous PA (LMVPA). RESULTS: Women with any school-aged children engaged in more MVPA than those with only ≤4y (e.g. % difference in minutes of MVPA [95% confidence interval]: 46.9% [22.0;77.0] for mothers with only school-aged vs only ≤4y). Mothers with multiple children did less MVPA than those with 1 child (e.g. 12.5% [-1.1;24.3] less MVPA for those with 2 children). For mothers with multiple children, those with any school-aged children did less LMVPA than those with only ≤4y (e.g. amongst mothers with 2 children, those with only school-aged children did 34.0 [3.9;64.1] mins/day less LMVPA). For mothers with any ≤4y, those with more children did more LMVPA (e.g. amongst mothers with only ≤4y, those with 2 children did 42.6 [16.4;68.8] mins/day more LMVPA than those with 1 child). CONCLUSIONS: Mothers with multiple children and only children aged ≤4y did less MVPA. Considering that many of these women also did more LMVPA than mothers with fewer or older children, interventions and policies are needed to increase their opportunities for higher intensity PA to maximise health benefits. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04715945.