Investigation of the Relationship between Menopausal Symptoms and Physical Activity Level in the Postmenopausal Period of Women

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between menopausal symptoms and physical activity levels in postmenopausal women.Material and Methods: One hundred seventeen women in the postmenopausal period with a mean age of 55.26 +/- 6.24 years were included in the study. Physical activity level was evaluated with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF), while menopausal symptoms were evaluated using the Menopausal Symptom Assessment Scale (MRS). MRS consists of three subtests: somato-vegetative, psychological and urogenital symptoms. Pearson's correlation was used to analyze the data. The significance level was accepted as p <= 0.05.Results: The relationship between IPAQ-SF scores and MRS somato-vegetative, psychological and urogenital symptoms subtests and total score of women was as follows: r = 0.561, p = 0.054, r = 0.668, p = 0.040; r = 0.936, p = 0.008; r = 0.937, p = 0.007, respectively.Discussion: As a result of our study, it was determined that there was a moderate and high negative correlation between physical activity level and menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women. This result showed us that physical activity had an effective role on the menopausal symptoms of postmenopausal women.