Neurodevelopmental outcome in 7-year-old children is not affected by exercise during pregnancy: follow up of a multicentre randomised controlled trial

Objective To investigate whether regular moderate intensity exercise during pregnancy had adverse effects on neurodevelopment of offspring at 7 years of age. Design Follow up of a multicentre randomised controlled trial. Setting St Olav's Hospital, Trondheim University Hospital and Stavanger University Hospital, Norway (2007-09). Population Women randomised to follow a 12-week structured exercise protocol or standard antenatal care during pregnancy. Methods At 7 years of age, neurodevelopmental outcome was assessed by the parent questionnaire Five-To-Fifteen (FTF), including motor skills, executive functions, perception, memory, language, social skills and possible emotional/behavioural problems. Main outcome measure Continuous and dichotomised (cut-off 90th centile) FTF scores. Results A total of 855 women were randomised to exercise (n = 429) or standard antenatal care (n = 426) during pregnancy. At follow up, 164 (38.2%) children born to mothers in the intervention group and 115 (27.0%) children born to mothers in the control group participated. We found no group differences in FTF scores or in the proportion of children with scores >= 90th centile. Stratified analyses by sex, subgroup analyses of women who adhered to the exercise protocol or sensitivity analyses excluding preterm children and/or children who had been admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit did not change the results. Conclusions In the present randomised controlled trial follow-up study, regular moderate intensity exercise during pregnancy did not have adverse effects on neurodevelopment of offspring at 7 years of age. Tweetable abstract Moderate intensity exercise during pregnancy had no adverse effects on neurodevelopment of offspring at 7 years of age.