Physical activity and adherence
Participants wore an ActivPAL3 inclinometer (PAL Technologies Ltd,
Glasgow, Scotland) to objectively measure adherence, physical activity
and sedentary behaviour for 7-days at 28-, 32- and 35-weeks gestation.
The ActivPal was worn on the anterior, proximal 1/3 of the lower limb
and secured with a Tagaderm. Physical activity and sedentary time were
calculated through changes in posture and movement in three planes;
sitting, standing, and stepping. Data with < 10h of valid data
were excluded from analysis [24]. Using the PAL software suite (PAL
Technologies Ltd) files were exported to calculate the following
measures: 1. Total minutes of prolonged periods (>30
minutes) of sitting time; 2. Total daily time sitting (minutes); 3.
Total daily standing time (minutes); 4. Total daily stepping time
(cadence >20 steps.minute-1) (minutes);
5. Estimated energy expenditure/exercise intensity as metabolic
equivalent (MET.h-1). Adherence to intervention
physical activity recommendations was calculated using exported 15-s
epochs to identify the longest stepping bout within 60 minutes of
consuming each main meal (PMW) or the longest daily stepping bout (CTL).
Times for exercise were also reported.