Health perception in menopausal women

Abstract

Mildren Del Sueldo,1,2,* Nieves Martell-Claros,3–5,* María Abad-Cardiel,3–5 Judith M Zilberman,6–8 Raul Marchegiani,1,2 Cristina Fernández-Pérez9 1Healthy heart program, Municipalidad de Villa María, Córdoba, Argentina; 2Cardiology Division and Cardiovascular Prevention, Specialty Clinic, Villa María, Córdoba, Argentina; 3Hypertension Unit, Internal Medicine Service, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Madrid, Spain; 4School of Medicine, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain; 5Research Institute of the San Carlos Clinical Hospital, Madrid, Spain; 6Physiology Course at the School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires, IQUIMEFA-CONICET, CABA, Argentina; 7Department of Cardiovascular Prevention, Hypertension Unit, Cardiovascular Institute, Buenos Aires (ICBA), CABA, Argentina; 8Cardiology Service, Hypertension Unit, Hospital General de Agudos Dr. Cosme Argerich, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 9Unit of Epidemiology and Clinical Methodology, Preventive Medicine Service, Research Institute of the San Carlos Clinical Hospital, UCM, Madrid, Spain *These authors contributed equally to this work Aim: The aim of this study is to find whether the worsening of health perception was related to the menopausal (MNP) state or to its negative consequences on cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRF) and the presence of depression/anxiety.Methods: In this study, 2,562 women, 1,357 (53%) MNP and 1,205 (47%) non-MNP, were analyzed. Blood pressure, heart rate, body mass index, waist circumference, and depression/anxiety screening using the Hospital Depression/Anxiety Scale (HADS) were measured. We collected a blood sample in fasting state for glycemia, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides. Logistic regression models were fitted with a backward method from the potentially confusing variables of the menopause study groups.Results: Age 49.4 (±15.9) years; 10.1% belonged to semi-rural population; 87.5% had children. Regarding the educational level, 22.1% had <5 years of education, 31.3% had between 6 and 7 years, 33.4% had between 8 and 12 years, and 13.2% had >12 years of education. The prevalence of CMRF was significantly higher in MNP women, except for smoking. We did not find any differences in the prevalence of depression or anxiety between MNP and non-MNP women. Health was perceived as worse among MNP women (P<0.05) and patients over 45 years of age than patients younger than 45 years. We found a relationship between the negative health perception with metabolic syndrome, depression, and anxiety, having children, smoking, residing in rural area, and low educational level; nevertheless, it is not correlative with MNP status.Conclusion: Perceived health should be viewed as a multifaceted condition related to social circumstances, and various symptoms in women, including menopause symptoms, but not with MNP state itself. Keywords: menopause, health perception, depression, anxiety, metabolic syndrome

Keywords

• Menopause
• health perception
• depression
• anxiety
• metabolic syndrome.