Prevalence of knowledge on maternal physical activity among pregnant women: a protocol for a systematic review.

BACKGROUND

Maternal physical activity is beneficial to pregnant women, fetus and newborns. Evidence suggests that the level of physical activity in this group is not up to the expectation around the world. Lack of knowledge on the benefits of physical activity during pregnancy and not being aware of the recommendations are major reasons for this situation. Although individual studies have reported various levels of knowledge on maternal physical activity in different populations, no studies have systematically reviewed the literature to provide global evidence on the topic that is useful in initiating multinational approaches to improve maternal physical activity. The proposed study aims to systematically review prevalence of knowledge on maternal physical activity among pregnant women in different regions in the world.

METHODS

The proposed systematic review is designed according to the guidelines for conducting systematic reviews of prevalence and will be reported following the recommendations in the PRISMA statement. Quantitative cross-sectional, descriptive and observational studies published from year 2000 to 2022 will be included in the review. PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, Embase, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science Core Collections will be searched using keywords relevant to physical activity, pregnant women and knowledge. Grey literature on the topic will be located through searching grey information sources, hand searching of reference lists and communicating with experts in the field. Screening of search results, selection and quality assessment of studies and data extraction will be independently performed by two reviewers. Assistance of a third reviewer will be sought to resolve any disagreement during the selection and quality assessment steps. After appraising the quality and consistency of selected studies, a premade data collection form will be used for data extraction. Narrative synthesis approach will be used in this review to analyze the evidence in primary studies.

DISCUSSION

The proposed review will summarize evidence on the level of knowledge on maternal physical activity among pregnant women in different populations and delineate interregional discrepancies. The study will locate high priority regions with poor knowledge and identify elements of knowledge that needs attention.