Table 2. Summary of Exercise Studies and Psychological Wellbeing in Pregnant Non-Psychiatric Subjects.

Study	N (Active/Control)	Design	Subject Characteristics	Active Group	Control Group	Study Outcome Measure and Results	Level of Evidence/Limitation(s)
Wallace et al (1986) [60]	31/22	Cross-sectional	Convenience sample of women enrolled in exercise facilities	Aerobic Exercise (2× week for at least 20 min per session)	Non-aerobic exercise	Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, 68.2 ± 23.8 vs. 96.6 ± 30.2 (p 0.008)	Level 2/Confounding variables ignored, recall bias, results are based on cross sectional view
Williams et al (1988) [61]	10/6	Prospective	Patients seen at OB clinics	Pregnant exercise group	Non-pregnant exercise group	Mood Adjective Check List (MACL) and no group differences (actual data not shown)	Level 2/Small sample size MACL was a secondary outcome
Koniak-Griffin et al (1994) [62]	35/23	Prospective	Adolescents from a residential maternity home	Supervised aerobic exercise, 2-times per week, 45-min per session × 6 weeks	No Exercise	CES-D greater change in depressive symptoms in exercise group than the control group	Level 2/Adolescent age group
Goodwin et al (2000) [63]	25/18	Retrospective	Convenient sample of women enrolled in hospital based prenatal courses	2 or more exercise sessions per week for the prior 4 weeks	No exercise	General Health Questionnaire-28;GHQ-A (Anxiety subscale) 4.70 ± 4.88 vs. 7.33±4.19(p 0.04)	Level 3/Lack of validated exercise history questionnaire, data collected at one time during pregnancy
Da Costa et al (2003) [64]	230	Prospective, repeated exercise measures in 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimester	OB-Clinics	Leisure time physical activity measured by recall during an interview	None	State Anxiety Inventory, Lubin Depression Adjective Checklist; Higher anxiety and depressive symptoms in sedentary pregnant women	Level 2/Lack of validated physical activity measures, and failure to account for other potential confounders
Poudevigne et al (2005) [65]	12/12	Prospective, cohort Study, repeated measures- 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32 and 36 weeks of gestation	Community sample	Healthy pregnant women completed physical activity diary, and exercise intensity measured by accelerometer	Non-pregnant women	65-item Profile of Mood States (POMS); no group differences (comparison not shown)	Level 2/Small sample size, multiple comparisons with no correction