Page 160 - Pro-active Management of Women’s Health after Cardiometabolic Complicated Pregnancies

158 | Part 3 Lifestyle intervention
Figure 3.5.1. Time-schedule of study in months after delivery
Start
Delivery 6
Cardiometabolic screening X Lifestyle questionnaires X Lifestyle counselling*
Evaluation questionnaires* Semi-structured interview*
7
X*
End
13 (months)
8.5 10
X X
X*
X*
X
X*
X*
*Lifestyle counselling, evaluation questionnaires and semi-structured interviews are only applicable to the intervention group but not to the controls
Study planning
The time-schedule of the study is shown in figure 3.5.1. The first visit was scheduled at six months postpartum, because we aimed for minimal changes in the measured variables due to ongoing recovery after pregnancy202, and to minimize the chance that the women were going to be pregnant again during the study period. During the first visit, participants were extensively screened for cardiometabolic risk factors. Anthropometric measures included weight, height, waist- and hip circumference, blood pressure and heart rate. Weight was measured on a digital weighting scale in tenths of kilograms. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured according to the guideline of the British Hypertension Society (2004-BHS IV)270. Biochemical measures included high density lipoprotein (HDL) (HDL_Cholesterol plus 3rd generation (HDLC3), Cobas®, Roche Diagnostics), low density lipoprotein (LDL) (LDL-Cholesterol plus 2nd generation (LDL_C), Cobas®, Roche Diagnostics) and total cholesterol (Cholesterol Gen.2 (CHOL2), Cobas®, Roche Diagnostics), HDL/total cholesterol ratio, triglycerides (Triglycerides (TRIGL), Cobas®, Roche Diagnostics), fasting glucose (Glucose HK