A review of the behaviour change techniques used in physical activity promotion or maintenance interventions in pregnant women

Background: The proportion of women meeting the recommended physical activity requirement is low. Evidence suggests behaviour change techniques (BCTs) can be effective in initiating and maintaining behaviour change and improving physical activity. Purpose: To synthesise the evidence related to the attributes of BCT-based physical activity interventions targeted at pregnant women. Methods: A systematic search of studies was made. Randomised controlled trials aiming to improve or maintain physical activity in pregnant women were included. Trials were categorised into 'very promising', 'quite promising', or 'non-promising' according to the intervention effectiveness. One-way analysis of variance was used to determine the difference in mean BCTs implemented in promising/ non-promising studies. Findings: A total of 18,966 studies were identified and 10 studies were included. 'Problem solving', 'social support (unspecified)', 'graded tasks', 'goal setting (behaviour)', 'instruction on how to perform a behaviour', 'self-monitoring of behaviour', 'demonstration of the behaviour', and 'action planning' were rated as promising BCTs. Discussion: Specific types of BCTs might be associated with physical activity promotion or maintenance during pregnancy. More high-quality randomised controlled trials investigating the effectiveness of individual or combinations of BCTs on physical activity in pregnant women are needed. (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.