Research
Mixed
Physical activity based interventions specifically reduce the odds of gestational diabetes, whereas diet-based interventions do not show a significant reduction in gestational diabetes in IPD meta-analysis.
Engage in moderate physical activity during pregnancy. This specific type of intervention has been shown to reduce the risk of gestational diabetes.
GoodSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Among individual interventions, those based mainly on physical activity showed a reduction in gestational diabetes in both IPD (odds ratio 0.67, 95% confidence interval 0.46 to 0.99, I2=0%; 10 studies, 2700 women)
Why this rating
IPD meta-analysis, but sample size for physical activity only studies is smaller.
Source
Effect of diet and physical activity based interventions in pregnancy on gestational weight gain and pregnancy outcomes: meta-analysis of individual participant data from randomised trials
The International Weight Management in Pregnancy (i-WIP) Collaborative Group · BMJ · 2017
DOI 10.1136/bmj.j3119
Meta-analysis · 36 studiesCited 534×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Diet and physical activity based interventions during pregnancy significantly reduce gestational weight gain compared to routine care, with a mean difference of -0.70 kg.Strong
- Diet and physical activity based interventions during pregnancy significantly reduce the odds of caesarean section.Strong
- Diet and physical activity based interventions during pregnancy do not significantly reduce the risk of composite maternal or offspring outcomes, nor individual outcomes like gestational diabetes, hypertensive disorders, or preterm delivery in IPD meta-analysis.Good
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