Mums’ activity levels may depend on number and ages of children
Less than half of mums meet the recommended levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity – and mothers of younger children manage to do the least, Cambridge and Southampton researchers have found.
Physical activity – particularly when it is moderate to vigorous – has many health benefits, decreasing the risk of a wide range of diseases from cancer to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as helping maintain a healthy weight and better mental health.
Evidence suggests physical activity can help parents cope with the daily challenges of being a parent and strengthen relationships with children if they are active together. However, parents tend to be less active than non-parents.
To examine how family composition affected the amount of physical activity mothers engaged in, researchers at the University of Cambridge and University of Southampton analysed data from 848 women who participated in the UK Southampton Women’s Survey. The women, aged 20-34 years, were recruited between 1998 and 2002 and followed up over subsequent years. They were given accelerometers to assess their levels of activity. The results are published today in PLOS ONE.
Women with school-aged children did on average around 26 mins* of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day, whereas mothers with only younger children (aged four years or under) managed around 18 mins* per day.
Having more than one child meant mothers managed only around 21 mins* of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day, but interestingly, mums with multiple children all under five years old did more light intensity activity than those with children of school-age.
Less than 50% of mothers met the recommended levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (150 minutes per week), regardless of the ages of their children.
Dr Kathryn Hesketh from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge said: “When you have small children, your parental responsibilities can be all-consuming, and it’s often hard to find the time to be active outside of time spent caring for your children. Exercise is often therefore one of the first things to fall by the wayside, and so most of the physical activity mums manage to do seems to be of a lower intensity.
“However, when children go to school, mums manage to do more physical activity. There are a number of possible reasons why this might be the case, including more opportunities to take part in higher intensity activities with their children; you may return to active commuting; or feel more comfortable using time to be active alone.”
Rachel Simpson, a PhD student in the MRC Epidemiology Unit, added: “There are clear benefits, both short term and long term, from doing more physical activity, particularly if it increases your heart rate. But the demands of being a mother can make it hard to find the time. We need to consider ways not only to encourage mums, but to make it as easy as possible for busy mums, especially those with younger children, to increase the amount of higher intensity physical activity they do.”
Professor Keith Godfrey from the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre and the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre said: “It is perhaps not unexpected that mothers who have young children or several children engage in less intense physical activity, but this is the first study that has quantified the significance of this reduction. More needs to be done by local government planners and leisure facility providers to support mothers in engaging in physical activity.”
*Note: these are mean averages
Reference
Simpson, RF et al. The association between number and ages of children and the physical activity of mothers: cross-sectional analyses from the Southampton Women’s Survey. PLOS ONE; 16 Nov 2022; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.027696
JOURNAL
PLoS ONE
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Observational study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
The association between number and ages of children and the physical activity of mothers: cross-sectional analyses from the Southampton Women’s Survey
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
16-Nov-2022
Mothers who have young or multiple children may engage in less intense physical activity
British moms wore accelerometers to track activity, revealing differences in high intensity exercise and overall physical activity
IMAGE: MOTHERS OF YOUNGER (<5S) OR MULTIPLE CHILDREN DO LESS HIGHER INTENSITY PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. view more
CREDIT: KRZYSZTOF KOWALIK, UNSPLASH, CC0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/PUBLICDOMAIN/ZERO/1.0/)
A new study exploring physical activity patterns among mothers in Britain suggests that mothers of young children and mothers of multiple children may engage in lower amounts of moderate or vigorous physical activity. Rachel Simpson and colleagues at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre and NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 16, 2022.
Previous research has shown that parents engage in less physical activity than non-parents, suggesting that parents may miss out on some of the many health benefits of physical activity. Research into the factors associated with this reduced activity has been limited, though some evidence suggests that mothers’ activity patterns may change once their children are old enough to attend school.
To better understand physical activity habits among mothers, Simpson and colleagues analyzed data from the Southampton Women’s Survey. 848 mothers were asked to wear an accelerometer to track the intensity and duration of their physical activity for up to seven days. The researchers distinguished between overall physical activity of any intensity and the more specific category of moderate or vigorous physical activity, which has greater health benefits than light physical activity.
Statistical analysis of the accelerometer data revealed differences in physical activity habits for mothers of different numbers of children and mothers of children of different ages.
Mothers of at least one school-aged child—a child older than 4 years—tended to engage in greater amounts of moderate or vigorous physical activity than mothers of solely younger children. Mothers of multiple children engaged in lower amounts of moderate or vigorous physical activity than mothers of only children.
Among mothers of multiple children, those with at least one school-aged child had a lower amount of overall physical activity than mothers of solely younger children. For mothers with at least one younger child, those with more children engaged in more overall physical activity.
These findings suggest the possibility that specific groups of moms, specifically mothers of younger children or multiple children, might gain health benefits from efforts to boost their opportunities for higher-intensity activity. The researchers note that further research is needed to inform development of such efforts.
The authors add: “We need to find ways to help mothers of younger (<5s) or multiple children to engage in higher intensity physical activity.”
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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276964
Citation: Simpson RF, Hesketh KR, Crozier SR, Baird J, Cooper C, Godfrey KM, et al. (2022) The association between number and ages of children and the physical activity of mothers: Cross-sectional analyses from the Southampton Women’s Survey. PLoS ONE 17(11): e0276964. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276964
Author Countries: UK
Funding: RFS is funded by an ESRC studentship (RG84395). The work of EvS, KRH and KW is supported by the Medical Research Council (grant numbers MC_UU_00006/5 and MC_UU_12015/3). This work was undertaken under the auspices of the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) (grant number MR/K023187/1), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. KRH is also funded by the Wellcome Trust (grant number 107337/Z/15/Z), and KW through the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (IS-BRC-1215-20014). KMG is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR Senior Investigator (NF-SI-0515-10042), NIHR Southampton 1000DaysPlus Global Nutrition Research Group (17/63/154) and NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (IS-BRC-1215-20004)) and the European Union (Erasmus+ Programme ImpENSA 598488-EPP-1-2018-1-DE-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP). The work of CC, KMG, NCH, HMI, JB and SRC was supported by funding from the Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, the UK Food Standards Agency, British Lung Foundation, the Arthritis Research UK, National Osteoporosis Society, International Osteoporosis Foundation, Cohen Trust, the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) Early Nutrition project under grant agreement 289346, and European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 733206, 9.6 M€ (LifeCycle), NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, and National Institute of Health Research Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, Oxford. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
JOURNAL
PLoS ONE
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Survey
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
Not applicable
ARTICLE TITLE
The association between number and ages of children and the physical activity of mothers: Cross-sectional analyses from the Southampton Women’s Survey
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
16-Nov-2022
COI STATEMENT
The authors have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: CC received personal fees from Alliance for Better Bone Health, Amgen, Eli Lilly, GSK, Medtronic, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Servier, Takeda and UCB. KMG has received reimbursement for speaking at conferences sponsored by companies selling nutritional products, and is part of an academic consortium that has received research funding from Abbott Nutrition, Nestec, BenevolentAI Bio Ltd. and Danone. NCH has received consultancy, lecture fees and honoraria from Alliance for Better Bone Health, AMGEN, MSD, Eli Lilly, Servier, UCS, Shire, Consilient Healthcare, Kyowa Kirin and Internis Pharma. The remaining authors declare they have no competing interests. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
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