Abstract
Background: Physical exercise helps to maintain a healthy lifestyle and its practice is recommended for women during pregnancy as a means of limiting the negative effects on the body that may take place and to optimise well-being, mood and sleep patterns, as well as encouraging daily physical activity, enhancing the ability to work and preventing pregnancy-related complications. Aim: To analyse the quality of life in pregnancy for women who complete a programme of moderate physical activity in water, following a designed method that the woman can perform physical exercise safely during pregnancy called the SWEP (study of water exercise during pregnancy) method. Materials and methods: A randomised clinical trial was performed. One hundred and twenty-nine pregnant women were randomly assigned either to an exercise class following the SWEP method (EG, n = 65) or to a control group (CG, n = 64). The trial began in week 20 of pregnancy (May 2016) and ended in week 37 (October 2016). Heath-related quality of life (HRQoL) was evaluated with the SF36v2 health questionnaire at weeks 12 and 35 of pregnancy. Results: The HRQoL score decreased significantly between weeks 12 and 35 of gestation, except for the mental health component, which in the CG fell by −3.28 points and in the EG increased slightly (p > 0.05). Among the CG, the score for the mental health component at week 35 was ≤42, indicating a positive screening risk of depression (39.20 ± 4.16). Conclusions: Physical activity programmes in water, such as SWEP, enhance the HRQoL of pregnant women.
Highlights
The World Health Organization has defined quality of life as “an individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns
The physical activity dimensions reported by the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) were used, displacement and free time
The determination of the level of physical activity according to GPAQ was made according to the women’s report of "a typical week day"[21,22]
Summary
The World Health Organization has defined quality of life as “an individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns. Physical exercise helps to maintain a healthy lifestyle and its practice is recommended for women during pregnancy as a means of limiting the negative effects on the body that may take place and to optimise well-being, mood and sleep patterns, as well as encouraging daily physical activity, enhancing the ability to work and preventing pregnancy-related complications
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