The relationship between health-promoting lifestyle and sleep quality in postmenopausal women

Menopausal women are widely reported to have poor sleep quality and sleep problems. It is not clear whether increases in sleep disturbance are brought about by hormone changes associated with menopause or due to psychosocial and physical problems.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 600 menopausal women aged between 40 and 60 without any known severe illnesses in the city of Qaen, Iran, from April 2015 to May 2016. Data were collected by Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

This study was conducted to investigate the relationship between health-promoting lifestyle and sleep quality in Iranian postmenopausal women. Data were analyzed using an independent t-test, Mann-Whitney, Chi-square, Spearman and univariate logistic regression.

The univariate logistic regression suggested that the physical activity dimension of lifestyle (OR = 1.095, 95% CI: 1.035-1.158, P < 0.006), non-smoking status (OR = 0.549, 95% CI: 0.331-0.912, P < 0.021) and occupation (women who were farmer compared with housewives) (OR = 0.239, 95% CI (0.074-0.775), P < 0.017) were associated with sleep quality.

Postmenopausal women in this study were at high risk for poor sleep quality. Poor sleep quality was associated with low levels of physical activity, smoking and being a housewife compared to being a farmer. Therefore, there is an essential need to educate women about health-promoting behaviors including daily physical activity and avoiding smoking which are associated with quality of sleep.