How to Monitor Physical activity in pregnant women? Questionnaire and accelerometer: stages of building a virtual assistant

Introduction: Physical activity during pregnancy can be tracked directly by accelerometer measurements and indirectly by validated questionnaires. Considering the advancement of the Internet of Things (IOT), managing and/or monitoring physical activities can be better explored to analyze individuals, as well as indirectly compare the intensity and domains of physical activities carried out by pregnant women. The project, called 'EVA'(Expert Virtual Assistant), suggests combining several fields of knowledge to obtain better information about physical activity during pregnancy, surpassing the claim made in previous research that studying and measuring the duration of daily physical activities in pregnant women is a challenge. Objective: In the present study, we present the results of the first stage of the EVA project, which aims to develop a Virtual Assistant (VA) in Portuguese, providing examples of health management features for monitoring Physical Activity measurements for pregnant women assisted in the Unified Health System (SUS) and the adaptation of the Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire (PPAQ). Methods and Analysis: The methods used were developed in two stages: adapting the physical activity questionnaire and building the Virtual Assistent to monitor physical activities. Thirty pregnant women who used the Unified Health System (SUS) in the city of Ribeir&atildeo Preto, Brazil participated in the study. The pregnant women wore sensor wristbands (accelerometers) and answered the sociodemographic, lifestyle and physical activity questionnaires via an application developed for this study. Results: The questionnaire used was the PPAQ adapted for Brazilian pregnant women. The most important changes were in the occupational domain for the house cleaning and in sedentary behavior activities. In the pilot study, it was observed that pregnant women spend more energy at home and in light and moderate intensity activities. textbfConclusion:This study made important contributions to evaluating PA in pregnant women. The proposal and studies for the construction of the AV-EVA, the inclusion of a specific occupational domain for pregnant women with domestic occupations and the new cutoff points for PA intensity measurements obtained via accelerometers.