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

(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.

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.

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.

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.