Factors associated with quality of life in a cohort of postmenopausal women.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate quality of life (QOL) and identify its associated factors in a cohort of postmenopausal women who had not received hormone therapy.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 81 postmenopausal women who had not used hormone therapy in the last six months. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, in addition to the prevalence of menopausal symptoms, were evaluated. QOL was assessed by the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire, which may be condensed into two summaries: Physical Component Summary and Mental Component Summary. Generalized linear models were used to analyze the data, allowing the identification of factors affecting QOL, adjusting for confounding variables.


RESULTS
The mean (+/-standard deviation) age of the participants was 58.1 +/- 4.7 years. The most prevalent symptoms were nervousness (67%) and hot flushes and sweating (51%). Factors associated with poorer QOL were sweating, palpitations, nervousness (physical component), and dizziness, nervousness, depression, insomnia and dyspareunia (mental component).


CONCLUSIONS
We observed that menopausal symptoms negatively affected the physical and mental components of QOL in postmenopausal women.
Conde
Délio Marques
DM
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil. condedelio@uol.com.br
Pinto-Neto
Aarão Mendes
AM
Santos-Sá
Danielle
D
Costa-Paiva
Lúcia
L
Martinez
Edson Zangiacomi
EZ
D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D019584:Hot Flashes / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires