Aerobic exercise during pregnancy improves health-related quality of life: a randomised trial

Abstract

QUESTION: Does supervised aerobic exercise during pregnancy improve health-related quality of life in nulliparous women? DESIGN: Analysis of secondary outcomes of a randomised trial with concealed allocation, blinded assessors, and intention-to-treat analysis. PARTICIPANTS: 64 nulliparous, pregnant women attending for prenatal care at one of three tertiary hospitals. INTERVENTION: The experimental group completed a 3-month supervised exercise program, commencing at 16 to 20 weeks of gestation. Each session included walking (10 min), aerobic exercise (30 min), stretching (10 min), and relaxation (10 min). The control group continued usual activities and performed no specific exercise. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was health-related quality of life assessed by the Colombian version of the Medical Outcome Study Short-Form Health Survey at baseline and immediately after the 3-month intervention. RESULTS: Fifty women completed the study. After the 3-month intervention, the experimental group had improved their health-related quality of life more than the control group in the physical component summary of the questionnaire by 6 points (95% CI 2 to 11), the physical function domain (7 points, 95% CI 0 to 14), the bodily pain domain (7 points, 95% CI 1 to 13) and the general health domain (5 points, 95% CI 1 to 10). CONCLUSIONS: A supervised 3-month program of primarily aerobic exercise during pregnancy improves health-related quality of life. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT00741312.