Women and aging: Physical activity and quality of LIFE among menopausal women – an 8-year follow-up study

Background and objectives. The aim of this study was to examine the importance of physical activity and menopausal status on eight-year change of quality of life among menopausal women. Methods. A total of 1165 Finnish women aged 45-64 years from a national representative population based study were followed up for 8 years. Study participants completed Health 2000 study questionnaire during year 2000 and a follow up questionnaire during 2008. Ordinal logistic regression analysis was used to measure the effect of menopausal status on global quality of life. Other variables included in the analyses were age, education, change of physical activity as assessed with metabolic energy equivalents and change of weight.  

Results. Peri- and postmenopausal women increased their physical activity (27.5% and 26.8%) during eight-year follow up period more often than premenopausal (17,8%) women (p=0.07). Menopausal status was not significantly correlated with change of quality of life. Women who increased their physical activity, had 1.5 times greater odds to improved  quality of life than women whose physical activity decreased. Quality of life improved among women whose weight remained stable compared to women whose weight increased during the follow-up (OR 1.26, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.50).  Conclusion. Physical activity increase is correlated with improvement of global QoL among menopausal women in a prospective design, regardless of menopausal status. The importance of the finding to the work-related factors will be discussed in the presentation.