Health-Related Quality of Life in Postpartum Recovery of Women who Practice Hypopressive Physical Activity. Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract BackgroundPracticing physical exercise is a way of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and it has been demonstrated that it benefits and improves quality of life after labour.AimTo determine whether a workout programme using the Low-Pressure Fitness methodology has an impact on the Health-Related Quality of Life after labour.Material and MethodWe carried out a 12-weeks randomized clinical trial. It started at week 16 after labour and ended at postpartum week 28. Women followed a moderate intensity workout programme, using the Low-Pressure Fitness methodology in the treatment group, and we had a control group of sedentary women to perform a comparison. We used the SF-36v2 questionnaire at the postpartum weeks 16 and 28 to assess the Health-Related Quality of Life in women.ResultsWe found statistically significant differences (p<0.05) in general health components, vitality, emotional role, and mental health in the sample group of women under the Low-Pressure Fitness, who obtained a higher score.We found statistically significant differences in all aspects between the postpartum weeks 16 and 28.The interaction between time and group affect in general health components, vitality, emotional role and the score of mental component. In all of them the score is higher at week 28 and in the Low-Pressure Fitness group.ConclusionsPhysical exercise, following the Low-Pressure Fitness method, improves Health-Related Quality of Life after labour. We found that, when both the treatment and control groups are categorized by body-mass index, the Low-Pressure Fitness method was not determinant to improve the postpartum Health-Related Quality of Life.