International Fitness Scale—IFIS: Validity and association with health‐related quality of life in pregnant women

Abstract

This study aimed (a) to examine the construct validity of the International Fitness Scale (IFIS) to discriminate between different objectively measured physical fitness levels in pregnant women and (b) to assess the extent to which IFIS is able to discriminate between pregnant women with different levels of health‐related quality of life (HRQoL). A total of 159 pregnant women were involved in the GESTAtion and FITness project: 106 pregnant women (mean age 32.7, SD 4.4 years) were included. Self‐reported physical fitness—that is, cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, flexibility, and overall fitness—was assessed with the IFIS. Physical fitness was objectively measured using the Bruce test, the handgrip strength test and the back‐scratch test. The HRQoL was assessed with the 36‐item Short Form Health Survey (SF‐36). Higher self‐reported physical fitness measured with IFIS was associated with higher objectively measured physical fitness (P < .05). There was a linear association so that higher self‐reported physical fitness (ie, IFIS; regardless of the fitness component) was related to greater General Health dimension scores (P < .05). Moreover, higher self‐reported physical fitness (all components except muscular strength) was associated with better Physical Functioning, lower Bodily Pain and higher Vitality scores (ie, SF‐36 components). This linear trend was not seen for objectively measured physical fitness. The results of this study suggest that IFIS might be a useful tool for identifying pregnant women with low or very low physical fitness and with low quality of life health‐related. Further research should elucidate whether IFIS can identify women with pregnancy complications before it can be implemented in clinical practice.

Association of Self-Reported Physical Fitness during Late Pregnancy with Birth Outcomes and Oxytocin Administration during Labour—The GESTAFIT Project

“…Therefore, further research is warranted in order to address the causality of our findings. Second, although subjective measures tend to overestimate some dimensions, the IFIS has been validated in the pregnant population [15]. Key strength of our methodology is that the sample size employed was relatively large compared to other studies performed on pregnant women.…”

“…However, this kind of tests requires a lot of time to carry them out, so the development of measuring tools adapted to the health professionals-who usually have less than five mins of consultation time [14] is mandatory. For this purpose, the International FItness Scale (IFIS) could be a validated, straightforward and handy clinical non-objective tool for assessing PF in pregnant women [15].…”

Self-reported (IFIS) versus measured physical fitness, and their associations to cardiometabolic risk factors in early pregnancy

“…The International FItness Scale (IFIS) has been proposed as a reliable and valid tool in assessing physical fitness levels in a time- and cost-effective way 7 . So far, the IFIS has been validated in several study populations of different ages in Europe 7 – 11 and South America 12 , 13 ; yet, only one of these studies has investigated the validity in pregnant women (n = 106) 9 . That study reported that IFIS might be a potential tool in identifying physical fitness level during pregnancy, and their results especially indicate its usefulness to identify women with low physical fitness, which is the group with markedly higher risk of poorer health outcomes 9 .…”

Assessing physical fitness during pregnancy: validity and reliability of fitness tests, and relationship with maternal and neonatal health-related outcomes. A systematic review

“…Physical fitness (PF) is considered a powerful marker of health that is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events, cancer and all-cause mortality in all ages [3][4][5][6][7]. In pregnant women, some studies have recently underlined the potential impact of PF on maternal and fetal health [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Low PF levels are associated with low infant birth weight [8], increased risk of gestational diabetes mellitus [9,10], poor postpartum recovery [11] and worse delivery outcomes [12,13].…”

“…Skill-related components (ability, coordination, balance, power, reaction time and speed) [1,2]. These PF components can be assessed subjectively through questionnaires [15], objectively and accurately through laboratory tests, and efficiently, economically and easily through field-based tests. During pregnancy, a wide variety of fitness tests have been used to assess PF; although a compilation of these tests has not been published to date.…”