Application of the COM-B Framework to Understand Facilitators and Barriers for Practising Physical Activity among Pregnant Women and Midwives Participating in the WELL-DONE! Study.

Regular physical activity (PA) is protective and reduces disease burden but remains a challenge for pregnant women (PW). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, PW without contraindications should practice 150 min of moderate PA per week. Nonetheless, PA levels are concerningly low among PW. The aim of this study was to investigate PW's and midwives' perceptions regarding PA and recommended guidelines, and use this information to inform future health promotion strategies. We recruited 10 PW and 10 midwives to participate in online focus groups conducted between July 2020 and April 2021. Focus group probes and data analysis were guided by the COM-B (capability, opportunity, motivation-behaviour) framework. The majority of the sample had already practised PA, recognized the importance of PA during pregnancy, and considered the WHO guidelines reasonable. Notwithstanding, PW wanted more specific instruction on PA and desired opportunities to practice. Additional barriers reported by PW included low self-efficacy and lack of motivation. Midwives considered the lack of specific knowledge and confidence in managing PA as the main obstacles. The current findings suggest that PW and midwives need specific training in PA to overcome both psychological and physical barriers. Midwives play a vital role in educating and encouraging PA among PW.

Single-nucleotide polymorphism array (SNP-A) improves the identification of chromosomal abnormalities by metaphase cytogenetics in myelodysplastic syndrome.

AIMS: The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous group of clonal haematopoietic stem cell disorders characterised by inefficient haematopoiesis and risk of progression to acute myeloid leukaemia. Metaphase cytogenetics is an extremely valuable clinical tool in the management of haematological malignancies. However, metaphase cytogenetics requires cellular proliferation, its sensitivity and resolution depends on the proportion of clonal cells in the sample and size of the lesion, respectively. Single-nucleotide polymorphism array (SNP-A) does not depend on the presence of dividing cells, is able to detect copy number variations with a high resolution and to detect copy number neutral loss of heterozygosity or uniparental disomy (UPD). The aim of this study was to illustrate that the use of SNP-A can cover cryptic chromosomal lesions not identified by metaphase cytogenetics in patients with MDS. METHODS: Metaphase cytogenetics was performed on bone marrow aspirate using standard methods. Genomic DNA from total bone marrow cells were submitted to SNP-A using Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP CytoScan HD. RESULTS: In our cohort of 15 patients with a diagnosis of MDS and related diseases, chromosomal abnormalities were found in 47% of the cases by SNP-A and in 33% by metaphase cytogenetics. SNP-A detected all lesions identified by metaphase cytogenetics, except a balanced translocation and a marker chromosome. Notably, SNP-A detected a total of 30 new lesions: 1 (3%) gain, 17 (57%) losses and 12 (40%) UPDs in 5 patients with MDS. CONCLUSIONS: SNP-A may complement metaphase cytogenetics to improve the detection of chromosomal abnormalities in myeloid neoplasms.