Journal of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences

The Effect of Physical Activity during Pregnancy on Development of Social Skills in Infants: A Short Report

N. Shojaeian[1], M. Shojaei[2], A. Ghasemi[3]

Received: 15/04/2017      Sent for Revision: 22/04/2017 Received Revised Manuscript: 20/06/2017  Accepted: 24/06/2017

Background and Objective: Maternal physical activity during pregnancy has been associated with promoting the skills of offsprings and their development; however, many mothers reduce their activity during this period. Due to lack of sufficient studies in this field, the aim of this study was to determine the effects of physical activity during pregnancy on social development among offsprings in the first and three months of life.

Materials and Methods: This trial was performed on 40 mother-infant pairs who were clients of health care centers in Bojnourd during 2015-2016. The samples were randomly assigned into the experimental and control groups. The experimental group benefited from 16 sessions physical intervention and the control group did not have any regular physical activities. Finally, communication and personal-social skills of infants in both groups were evaluated by Ages and Stages Questionnaire III (ASQ 3) in two periods of one and three months. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA (2 × 2).

• The results showed that in communication skill subscale, the main effect of group (F₁=39.04, P=0.001) and the main effect of time (F₁=90.13, P=0.001) were significant, but the interaction between the group and time effect (F₁=0.495, P=0.487) was not reported significant. In contrast, there was a statistically significant difference in personal-social skill in the variables of group (F₁=29.53, P=0.001) and time (F₁=87.95, P=0.001). Also, the interaction of two variables was significant and selected training impacted the personal-social skill of infants in one and three months (F₁=6.54, P=0.015).
• : According to the findings, it seems that activity in pregnancy can lead to improvement of social skills of infants and also, its effects are persistent during the time. Therefore, it is recommended that pregnant women do physical activities with medical approval.

Key words: Physical activity, Pregnancy, Social skills, Infants

Funding: This research was funded by Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch of Tehran.

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Ethical approval: The Ethics Committee of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences approved the study.

How to cite this article: Shojaeian N, Shojaei M, Ghasemi A. The Effect of Physical Activity during Pregnancy on Development of Social Skills in Infants: A Short Report. J Rafsanjan Univ Med Sci 2017; 16(4): 381-88. [Farsi]