Maturitas
Volume 62, Issue 1 , Pages 30-36, 20 January 2009

Epidemiology of risk factors and symptoms associated with menopause in Spanish women

  • José Antonio Martínez Pérez

      Affiliations

    • Primary Health Centre Guadalajara-Sur, Guadalajara, Spain
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author at: Centro de Salud Guadalajara-Sur, C/Ferial, 31, 1a Planta, 19001 – Guadalajara, Spain. Tel.: +34 49217935.
    • ,
  • Felipe Chavida Garcia

      Affiliations

    • Primary Health Centre Cervantes, Guadalajara, Spain
    • ,
  • Santiago Palacios

      Affiliations

    • Palacios Institute of Women's Health and Medicine, Madrid, Spain
    • ,
  • Maite Pérez

      Affiliations

    • Almirall Pharmaceuticals, Medical Department, Barcelona, Spain

Received 1 May 2008; received in revised form 29 September 2008; accepted 1 October 2008. published online 03 November 2008.

Abstract 

Objectives

(1) To assess the prevalence of risk factors for osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease and the prevalence and severity of the appearance of menopausal symptoms among Spanish menopausal women. (2) To identify the main factors responsible for this severity. (3) To detect symptom differences between perimenopausal and postmenopausal women.

Methods

Cross-sectional descriptive study encompassing women aged 45–65 years in the whole Spanish territory. The study population sample was collected through random sampling. A total of 10,514 women were included. The sociodemographic, medical history and lifestyle data were assessed by means of a survey. The Kupperman scale was used to assess the severity of menopausal symptoms.

Results

The prevalence of risk factors for osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease were 67.6% and 74.8%, respectively. The most common risk factors were physical inactivity (53.6%), obesity (44.3%), arterial hypertension (36.6%), hypercholesterolemia (31.4%), low calcium intake (30.1%) and smoking (28.7%). The predominant symptoms experienced by menopausal women were hot flushes (51.4%), insomnia (45.7%) and irritability (42.2%). These were severe in 3.3% of the sample, moderate in 27.3%, mild in 24.6% while 44.8% had no symptoms. The prevalence of joint pain (40.1%) and depressive mood (40%) was higher in perimenopausal than in postmenopausal women. Logistic regression analysis showed that there were differences for age, BMI, smoking, social class and poor consumption of dairy products in the severity of menopausal symptoms.

Conclusions

A high prevalence of risk factors for osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease was observed in our study. The main factors contributing to more severe menopausal symptoms were age, BMI, smoking social class and poor consumption of dairy products. In general, postmenopausal women presented significantly higher rates of menopausal symptoms when compared to perimenopausal women.

Keywords: Epidemiology of menopause, Prevalence of risk factors, Severity of symptoms, Prevention

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PII: S0378-5122(08)00265-X

doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2008.10.003

Maturitas
Volume 62, Issue 1 , Pages 30-36, 20 January 2009

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