Menopause and myocardial infarction risk among employed women in relation to work and family psychosocial factors in Lithuania

The impact of a specialist-led digital health application on menopause symptoms in the workplace: A single-arm, longitudinal evaluation

OBJECTIVES

The aim of the study was to evaluate the change in menopause symptoms and work impairment among a cohort of UK working women who utilised an employer-provided digital menopause health application offering education and personalised support.

STUDY DESIGN

We adopted a retrospective, single-arm, longitudinal approach by analysing data from 11,870 users of the Peppy Health menopause application. Users reported their menopause symptoms and work impairment on day 0 and after 90 and 180 days of application use.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Menopause symptoms were measured by the Menopause Rating Scale, while work impairment was measured by a single question.

RESULTS

A significant decrease in the severity of menopause symptoms was observed in users across menopause stages, except for premenopausal users who saw lower severity and no change over time. Improvement in menopause symptoms was positively associated with the degree of application engagement. Work impairment also significantly reduced over time for menopausal users, and a significant association was observed between a reduction in menopause symptoms and a decline in work impairment.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings show that engaging with a digital menopause application is associated with an improvement in menopause symptoms, which lends initial support for the use of personalised digital solutions to help working women through the menopause transition.

Menopause and work: A narrative literature review about menopause, work and health

BACKGROUND:

Menopause is part of working women’s lives. In Western countries, labour market patterns are changing rapidly: women’s labour participation has increased, the percentage of full-time working women is rising, and retirement age is increasing.

OBJECTIVE:

This narrative literature study aims to provide an insight in the state of the art in the literature about the relationship between menopause, work and health and to identify knowledge gaps as input for further research.

METHODS:

The search was conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE and ScienceDirect. The final set includes 36 academic articles, 27 additional articles related to the topic and 6 additional sources.

RESULTS:

Research on menopause, work and health is scarce. Results are grouped thematically as follows: Menopause and (1) a lack of recognising; (2) sickness absence and costs; (3) work ability; (4) job characteristics; (5) psychosocial and cultural factors; (6) health; (7) mental health, and (8) coping and interventions. Work ability of women with severe menopausal complaints may be negatively affected.

CONCLUSIONS:

Due to taboo, menopause remains unrecognised and unaddressed within an organisational context. New theoretical and methodological approaches towards research on menopause, work and health are required in order to match the variety of the work contexts world-wide.

Beer Polyphenols and Menopause: Effects and Mechanisms-A Review of Current Knowledge

Beer is one of the most frequently consumed fermented beverages in the world, and it has been part of the human diet for thousands of years. Scientific evidence obtained from the development of new techniques of food analysis over the last two decades suggests that polyphenol intake derived from moderate beer consumption may play a positive role in different health outcomes including osteoporosis and cardiovascular risk and the relief of vasomotor symptoms, which are commonly experienced during menopause and are an important reason why women seek medical care during this period; here, we review the current knowledge regarding moderate beer consumption and its possible effects on menopausal symptoms. The effect of polyphenol intake on vasomotor symptoms in menopause may be driven by the direct interaction of the phenolic compounds present in beer, such as 8-prenylnaringenin, 6-prenylnaringenin, and isoxanthohumol, with intracellular estrogen receptors that leads to the modulation of gene expression, increase in sex hormone plasma concentrations, and thus modulation of physiological hormone imbalance in menopausal women. Since traditional hormone replacement therapies increase health risks, alternative, safer treatment options are needed to alleviate menopausal symptoms in women. The present work aims to review the current data on this subject.

Hypertension and age at onset of natural menopause in Korean postmenopausal women: Results from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2008-2013)

OBJECTIVES

Menopause is a natural phenomenon of aging, although the timing and management of menopause can significantly affect a woman's quality of life. It is therefore important to identify measures to ensure a healthy menopause. We set out to investigate the association between hypertension and early menopause in Korean women.

STUDY DESIGN

This cross-sectional study was based on 2008-2013 data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES). Of the 53,829 participants surveyed, 13,584 women were selected. We analyzed the contents of the health interview, health examination, and nutrition survey.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

The main outcome was defined based on hazard ratios (HR) to identify the effects of hypertension on age at onset of menopause.

RESULTS

Among postmenopausal women (n=6650), the mean age at onset of menopause was 50.4 years. Premenopausal hypertension was statistically significantly associated with age at menopause, oral contraceptive usage, household income, education level, occupation, marital status and smoking and drinking habits. With lower age at diagnosis of hypertension, HRs for menopause tended to be higher, and hypertension diagnosed before age 40 years conferred a statistically significantly higher HR (Model 1, HR=2.32, 95% CI=1.87-2.88; Model 2, HR=2.31, 95% CI=1.86-2.86; Model 3, HR=2.23, 95% CI=1.80-2.77; Model 4, HR=2.00, 95% CI=1.52-2.63).

CONCLUSION

Premature menopause is strongly associated with lifestyle factors, in combination with incomplete management of chronic diseases. Our findings support the hypothesis that younger age at diagnosis of hypertension is associated with younger age at onset of menopause in Korean women.

Menopause in the workplace: What employers should be doing

Large numbers of women transition through menopause whilst in paid employment. Symptoms associated with menopause may cause difficulties for working women, especially if untreated, yet employers are practically silent on this potentially costly issue. This review summarises existing research on the underexplored topic of menopause in the workplace, and synthesises recommendations for employers. Longstanding scholarly interest in the relationship between employment status and symptom reporting typically (but not consistently) shows that women in paid employment (and in specific occupations) report fewer and less severe symptoms than those who are unemployed. Recent studies more systematically focused on the effects of menopausal symptoms on work are typically cross-sectional self-report surveys, with a small number of qualitative studies. Though several papers established that vasomotor (and associated) symptoms have a negative impact on women's productivity, capacity to work and work experience, this is not a uniform finding. Psychological and other somatic symptoms associated with menopause can have a relatively greater negative influence. Physical (e.g., workplace temperature and design) and psychosocial (e.g., work stress, perceptions of control/autonomy) workplace factors have been found to influence the relationship between symptoms and work. Principal recommendations for employers to best support menopausal women as part of a holistic approach to employee health and well-being include risk assessments to make suitable adjustments to the physical and psychosocial work environment, provision of information and support, and training for line managers. Limitations of prior studies, and directions for future research are presented.

Effect of menopause on cardiovascular disease and its risk factors: a 9-year follow-up study

OBJECTIVES

To explore the cardiovascular risk attributable to menopausal status in a 9-year follow-up, population-based study.

METHOD

All middle-aged women who met our eligibility criteria were selected from the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study cohort. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews, physical examination and biochemical assessments at 3-year intervals. The World Health Organization classification was used to define menopausal status. Cardiovascular events that occurred in the cohort were investigated by a panel of medical specialists.

RESULTS

Based on menopausal status, there were no significant differences in cardiovascular disease after adjustment for age, body mass index and other confounders; however, significant relationships between serum concentrations of low density cholesterol and total cholesterol and menopausal status were observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Menopause, independent of other cardiovascular disease risk factors, incurred cardiometabolic risk.

Menopause with cardiovascular disease and its risk factors among rural Chinese women in Beijing: a population-based study

OBJECTIVES

This study was to explore the independent influence of menopause on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors in rural Chinese females.

STUDY DESIGN

This cross-sectional population-based study enrolled 2245 premenopausal and 2498 postmenopausal women aged 40-59 years in Fangshan district, Beijing, China. Data was collected by face-to-face interview, physical examination and biochemical examination during 2009 and 2010. General liner models were employed to calculate age-adjusted means of cardiovascular risk factors (CRFs). The comparisons of CVD and it risk factors according to menopausal status, and calculation of adjusted odds ratios/coefficients and their 95% confidence intervals for the associations of quartiles of elapsed time since menopause and age at menopause with CVD and its risk factors was performed by multivariate logistic/liner regression models separately.

RESULTS

After adjustment for age and other confounders, no statistically significant association of menopause with CVD was observed in our participants; however, dyslipidemia prevalence and levels of waist-to-hip ratio, triglycerides, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were presented higher in postmenopausal group, compared to the premenopausal one (P<0.05). Compared to women who had been menopausal for less than1 year, those with the elapsed time since menopause of 2-3 years had higher CHD prevalence, higher triglycerides level and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Postmenopausal women in rural China had worse CRFs profile than the premenopausal ones, which implied menopause might aggravate the CRFs epidemic beyond effects of aging, and would increase the CVD burden during and after their middle ages.