The effect of exercise training based on the health promotion model on menopausal symptoms

The Intersection of Menopause, Lack of Physical Activity, and Cardiovascular Risk

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality in women in the United States, and the physiologic changes that occur during perimenopause and menopause can increase women's risk of CVD. Physical activity levels decrease with age, but physical activity can effectively reduce both menopausal symptoms and CVD risk in women. Interventions to increase physical activity and reduce menopausal symptoms and CVD risks in women are often not comprehensive and are unsustainable due to individual contextual barriers. Furthermore, there is a lack of counseling, education, and support for women related to both the menopause transition and prevention of CVD. Theory-based, collaborative interventions addressing physical, social, contextual, individual, and other socioecological factors seem to be the most effective and sustainable and are needed to increase physical activity, reduce CVD risks, and enhance quality of life in menopausal women.

Influence of physical activity level and perceived social support on mental health and psychological distress in women with menopause problems

Perceived Social Support (PSS) and Physical Activity (PA) could have an important role in reducing psychological distress in women with problems in the menopausal period. The aim was to analyze the associations between a) Self-Perceived Health (SPH), prevalence of self-reported depression and anxiety, and mental health and its subscales, through the Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) with b) the Physical Activity Level (PAL) and c) the PSS, through the Duke-UNC-11 functional social support questionnaire in Spanish women with problems in the menopausal period. This document uses data from the Spanish National Health Survey of 2017, focusing on women between 40 and 69 years of age with problems in the menopausal period. Dependency relationships were found between the prevalence of depression and PAL, anxiety and PAL, and SPH with PAL (p < 0.001). Weak inverse correlations were found between PAL and mental health, Coping Success, Self-confidence, and Stress (rho: - 0.214 to - 0.258; p < 0.001). Also, weak and very weak significant inverse correlations were found between PAL and all items of the GHQ-12. Weak inverse correlations were found between PSS scores and mental health, Coping, and Stress (r: -0.201 to - 0.304; p < 0.001). Likewise, weak and very weak inverse correlations, although statistically significant, were found between the PSS scores and the responses to the GHQ-12 items. Very active women with higher PSS have less psychological distress, higher self-esteem, and better prevalence of positive health.

Psychological and social health outcomes of physical activity around menopause: A scoping review of research

OBJECTIVE

To chart peer-reviewed literature regarding the psychological and social health outcomes of physical activity (PA) around menopause in a systematic manner.

METHODS

Nine electronic databases and 10 core journals were searched using specific search strings to identify eligible articles. Manual checking of reference lists was also performed. The selection process was guided by the stages in PRISMA-ScR.

RESULTS

Eighty peer-reviewed articles representing 67 studies from 25 countries were included. All articles were published between 1994 and 2021. For all studies, surveys were the primary method of measuring psychological and social health outcomes, in cross-sectional studies (36 papers), intervention studies (33), longitudinal cohort studies (10) and one paper reporting a mixed-method study. The dataset comprised a total of 103,826 women, with an average age of 52.6 and a variety of menopausal states. Most of the studies involved primarily Caucasian, relatively healthy, married and employed participants. Nineteen psychological and social health outcomes were assessed, including psychological menopause symptoms (N = 34), quality of life (N = 33), depression (N = 30), anxiety (N = 11), mental wellbeing (N = 21), perceived stress (N = 9), satisfaction with life (N = 7) and self-esteem (N = 5).

CONCLUSIONS

Collectively, the findings of these studies indicate a relatively evident positive impact of PA on the respective health outcomes, with only a few studies reporting no association. It is also noteworthy that most studies did not report any difference related to menopausal status. Future studies would benefit from, inter alia, a qualitative approach to lived experiences of psychological and social health outcomes of PA during the menopausal transition.