Physical activity and structured exercise patterns in perimenopausal women: a cross-sectional study

Perimenopause is a critical midlife transition within women's aging, with implications for cardiometabolic, musculoskeletal, functional, and psychosocial health. Although physical activity and structured exercise are relevant components of healthy aging, evidence remains limited regarding how perimenopausal women organize their real-world exercise behavior, including exercise modalities and supervision. This cross-sectional study used a primarily descriptive approach to characterize physical activity habits and exercise patterns in perimenopausal women. Specifically, weekly physical activity level and intensity, exercise modalities, reported training time, and supervision status were examined, together with secondary exploratory comparisons across physical activity categories and according to selected sociodemographic and reproductive variables. An anonymous online questionnaire was completed by 121 women; 57 met the eligibility criteria, and 51 were included in the final analyses after exclusion of responses that did not allow calculation of total metabolic equivalent minutes per week (MET·min/week). Weekly physical activity was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form. Mean total physical activity was 2258.1 ± 1447.3 MET·min/week. Moderate and high physical activity levels predominated, accounting for 43.1% and 39.2% of participants, respectively, whereas 17.6% were classified as having low physical activity. Endurance training (66.7%) and strength training (62.7%) were the most frequently reported exercise modalities, while sport-based activities were less common (35.3%). Endurance and strength training were reported more frequently in the higher physical activity categories. No statistically significant differences in total physical activity were identified according to the sociodemographic and reproductive variables examined, although a secondary exploratory comparison showed greater reported weekly strength training time among women aged 50 years or older than among younger participants. Participants reporting fully or partially supervised exercise showed descriptively higher total physical activity and more frequent participation in the exercise modalities examined, although the inferential comparisons of total physical activity and reported training time were not statistically significant. These findings provide a descriptive account of heterogeneous physical activity and exercise patterns in the sample examined. Given the achieved sample size and exploratory nature of the subgroup comparisons, the observed differences require confirmation in larger and more comprehensively characterized samples.