The effect of diet and exercise on climacteric symptomatology.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to explore the effects of health education, diet and exercise interventions on the climacteric symptoms of perimenopausal women.

METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN

A total of 78 perimenopausal women in a gynaecological clinic from June 2018 to August 2018 were recruited and divided randomly into the following three groups: A (centralised education alone), B (health education + per-sonalised diet guidance) and C (health education + personalised diet guidance + intensive resistance exercise). The changes in diet score, exercise habits and climacteric symptoms were observed after 3 months.

RESULTS

There was no difference between groups in food intake scores and total scores before the interventions. After the interventions, the total diet score of group C was higher than in groups A and B, and the red meat score decreased significantly (p<0.05). After the interventions, the number of resistance exercises per week in group B increased significantly. The number of aerobic exercises and resistance exercises per week in group C also increased significantly (p<0.05). The total score for climacteric symptoms in the three groups decreased significantly before and after the interventions (p<0.05), and the scores for insomnia and sexual disorders in group A decreased significantly (p<0.01). In group B, there was a significant effect on the improvement of moderate and severe climacteric symptoms (p<0.01), and the scores for seven other common symptoms (i.e. hot flushes, sweating, irritability, depression, suspicion, fatigue, joint pain, muscle pain, palpitations and sexual disorders) decreased significantly (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Centralised health education, personalised dietary guidance and intensive resistance exercise improved the menopausal symptoms experienced by peri-menopausal women; the most indicative changes of this improvement were obtained using combined health education and personalised dietary guidance.