BACKGROUND: Women with overweight (OW) and those with obesity (OB) tend to gain excessive weight during pregnancy, often resulting in adverse outcomes. The long-term effects of mobile health (mHealth) interventions on maternal and infant outcomes remain unclear. AIMS: To examine the effects of an mHealth intervention on OW and OB from the course of their pregnancy to six months postpartum. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in northern Taiwan. Ninety-two pregnant women with a body mass index (BMI) of >= 25 kg/m2 were recruited from prenatal clinics at < 17 weeks of gestation. Prepregnancy weight was baseline maternal weight, with data collected subsequently at the last assessment before childbirth and six months postpartum. The intervention group (IG) received the mHealth intervention, while the control group (CG) received standard antenatal care. The trial was registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT04553731) with the initial registration date of September 16, 2020. FINDINGS: The IG tended to have a lower mean body weight than the CG at the last assessment before childbirth (82.23 kg versus 84.35 kg) and at six months postpartum (72.55 kg versus 72.58 kg). IG's newborn birth weight was significantly lower than CG's (3074.8 versus 3313.6 g; p = 0.009). Regression analysis revealed that OB in IG had a significant reduction in weight before childbirth (beta = -7.51, p = 0.005) compared to OB in CG. Compared to OW in CG, both OW in IG (beta = -243.59, p = 0.027) and OB in IG (beta = -324.59, p = 0.049) were associated with decreased newborn birth weight. CONCLUSIONS: mHealth helped women with obesity to successfully manage their GWG and body weight before childbirth and newborns' birth weight, despite this effect not persisting to reduce weight retention at six months postpartum.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• DOI
• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher