Table 1.
Background characteristics of the participants, means (SD) or numbers (%)
| Intervention group (n = 48) |
Control group (n = 37) |
p-value | |
| Age at 2 months postpartum (y) | 29.5 (3.9) | 28.3 (4.4) | 0.21 |
| Education level, n (%) | 0.46 | ||
| basic or secondary education | 23 (48) | 17 (46) | |
| polytechnic education | 8 (17) | 10 (27) | |
| University education | 17 (35) | 10 (27) | |
| Smoking status1, n (%) | 0.22 | ||
| Non-smoker before and after pregnancy | 30 (68) | 20 (57) | |
| Smoker before pregnancy and non-smoker after pregnancy | 5 (11) | 2 (6) | |
| Smoker before and after pregnancy | 9 (21) | 13 (37) | |
| Pre-pregnancy BMI (kg/m2) | 22.7 (3.7) | 22.1 (2.3) | 0.36 |
| Total gestational weight gain (kg) | 16.2 (5.0) | 15.3 (5.0) | 0.41 |
| Gestational weight gain, n (%) | 0.78 | ||
| Below recommendations37 | 9 (19) | 9 (24) | |
| Within recommendations | 13 (28) | 11 (30) | |
| Exceeding recommendations | 25 (53) | 17 (46) | |
| Body weight at 2 months postpartum (kg) | 67.1 (11.1) | 64.7 (7.8) | 0.26 |
| Weight retention at 2 months postpartum compared to pre-pregnancy weight (kg) | 4.3 (4.0) | 4.2 (3.9) | 0.91 |
| BMI at 2 months postpartum (kg/m2) | 24.3 (3.8) | 23.6 (2.5) | 0.30 |
| by BMI groups, n (%) | 0.25 | ||
| 18.5–24.9 kg/m2 | 30 (63) | 27 (73) | |
| 25.0–29.9 kg/m2 | 15 (31) | 10 (27) | |
| ≥ 30.0 kg/m2 | 3 (6) | 0 (0) | |
| Waist circumference at 2 months postpartum (cm) | 81.8 (9.0) | 81.1 (6.7) | 0.66 |
1 Smokers include both daily and occasional smokers. Smoking status was assessed for the periods of 0–6 months before pregnancy and 4–10 months postpartum