Abstract
Objective
To investigate whether body mass index, abdominal obesity or fat distribution in postmenopausal
women influence their quality of Life.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was carried out on 250 postmenopausal women (age: 50–64 years),
with intact uterus and ovaries, sexually active, and non-hormone therapy users. Various
anthropometric measurements were considered and a specific health-related quality
of life (HR-QoL) instrument, the Cervantes scale, was performed.
Results
Thirty-three women were not included as they refused to participate in the study,
had chronic disease such as hypertension, diabetes type 2, depression or did not answer
all the scale items, so 217 patients were evaluated. According with BMI values, 34%
of women were obese, 46.1% were in overweight, 19.8% were in normal weight and there
were not underweight women. Any consistent relation was found between BMI and global
values of HR-QoL, but obese women were diagnosed with “high level of problems” in
the “psychical domain” and in the “sexuality domain”. This difference in “sexuality
domain” was also appreciated in women with abdominal obesity. Fat or lean mass was
not correlated with HR-QoL.
Conclusion
In our study, obesity did not affect the global HR-QoL in Spanish postmenopausal women,
but could have an influence on the psychical and sexual domains. Others anthropometric
measurements are not associated with changes in HR-QoL. Additional research with HR-QoL
specific and validated instruments and with a longitudinal design seems necessary
to confirm our results.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 26, 2007
Accepted:
September 25,
2007
Received in revised form:
September 21,
2007
Received:
July 19,
2007
Identification
Copyright
© 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
