Page 68 - Pro-active Management of Women’s Health after Cardiometabolic Complicated Pregnancies

66 | Part 3 Lifestyle intervention
without a control group, studies that did not describe the effect of a behavioral lifestyle intervention (e.g., that described the effect of reduced nicotine cigarettes), and studies on the effect of lifestyle interventions initiated during pregnancy were also excluded.
Data Extraction
For the articles included in the present review, the following characteristics were recorded: first author and year of publication, country, study design, interventions, participant demographics, sample sizes, measurements, and the effects of the interventions in terms of weight loss, smoking cessation, and smoking relapse prevention. With regard to weight loss, reported outcome measures were mean weight loss or weight retention in kilograms (kg) at follow-up, mean weight loss per time unit, and percentage of women who returned to their pre-pregnancy weight at follow-up. With regard to smoking cessation, reported outcome measures were number of cigarettes smoked (self-reported or biochemically validated), salivary cotinine levels, self- reported and biochemically validated 7-day abstinence, 4-week point prevalence abstinence rates, quit rates, daily smoking rates, and percentages of women who reported sustained or continuous cessation. With regard to smoking relapse prevention, the following outcome measures were reported: relapse rates, percentage of nonsmokers, and percentage of women who reported sustained or continuous cessation.
All reported outcome measures in the intervention group were compared to a control group. An intervention was considered to be effective when a significant difference (P < 0.050 was found between the intervention and control group for the outcome measure at follow-up. Study results were also interpreted in the context of the study design. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was