Relação entre a prática de atividade física durante a gestação com a ocorrência de depressão no período pós-parto

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the relationship between physical activity during pregnancy and the presence of depressive symptoms in the postpartum in women using the Sistema Único de Saúde. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study, carried out from August 2024 to July 2025, with women aged 12 years or older, with children up to 2 years old, and who were undergoing childcare follow-up, in five basic health units of primary care in Passo Fundo - RS. The outcome of interest was the presence of depressive symptoms in the postpartum period assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, while the main exposure was leisure-time physical activity during pregnancy, which was assessed throughout pregnancy and stratified by gestational trimester, considering a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity per week, following the global recommendations. Descriptive statistics and distribution of the outcome analysis according to independent variables were performed using the chi-square test, adopting a statistical significance level of p<0.05. Results: The sample consisted of 378 women, most of whom self-reported as white (51.6%), aged between 19 and 35 years (81.4%), married or living with a partner (72.9%), with complete high school education at that moment (37.1%), with more than one child (59.9%) and with a family income of 1 to 3 minimum wages (56.6%). The prevalence of women with symptoms of postpartum depression was 36.9% (95%CI 31- 40). In general, no statistically significant relationships were found between physical activity practiced during pregnancy and symptoms of depression in the postpartum period in the sample analyzed. However, contrary to the initial hypothesis, in the third trimester of pregnancy, a higher frequency of depressive symptoms was observed in women classified as active (≥ 150 minutes/week) according to the current recommendation (p=0.017). Conclusion: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was high in the sample analyzed. On the other hand, a small portion of women were classified as physically active during leisure time according to the current recommendations for physical activity practice. The initial hypothesis that higher levels of physical activity during pregnancy would be related to a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms in the postpartum period was not confirmed based on the data from this study.