title: Aerobic exercise during pregnancy improves health-related quality of life: a randomised trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Does supervised aerobic exercise during pregnancy improve health-related quality of life in nulliparous women?
  
  
  METHODS
  Analysis of secondary outcomes of a randomised trial with concealed allocation, blinded assessors, and intention-to-treat analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  64 nulliparous, pregnant women attending for prenatal care at one of three tertiary hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  NCT00741312.
authors.affiliation: University of Valle, Colombia.
authors.forename: Ana Victoria
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Montoya Arizabaleta
authors.forename: Lorena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Orozco Buitrago
authors.forename: Ana Cecilia
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Aguilar de Plata
authors.forename: Mildrey
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mosquera Escudero
authors.forename: Robinson
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramirez-Velez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult