Chinese women’s health and wellbeing in middle life: unpacking the influence of menopause, lifestyle activities and social participation
Chinese women’s health and wellbeing in middle life: unpacking the influence of menopause, lifestyle activities and social participation
Objectives: to examine Chinese middle-aged women's health and wellbeing and the associated biosocial correlates. Study design: This study used a cross-sectional design, including selected retrospectively collected information on the final menstrual period, drawn from the 2013 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Women aged 45 to 59 were selected.
Main outcome measures: factor analysis of 16 menopausal symptom ratings yielded four different and independent measures of pre-/peri-menopausal and early postmenopausal women's health. These were: negative mood (feel frustrated, sad, lonely, worried, bored, angry, tired and stressed), positive emotions (feel enthusiastic, content and happy), musculoskeletal pain (shoulder/neck pain, knee and other joint pain, and back pain), and sleep and memory problems (trouble sleeping and poor memory).
Results: menopausal status was positively associated with sleep and memory problems, whilst the number of years since the final menstrual period was positively associated with musculoskeletal pain. In contrast, lifestyle activities and social participation were linked to positive emotions. The association between selected biosocial factors and negative mood was not significant after controlling for other demographic and social background factors.
Conclusions: musculoskeletal health as well as sleep and memory problems are positively associated with menopausal biological factors amongst Chinese mid-life women. Maintaining active social engagement contributes to positive wellbeing among middle-aged women.
China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, Health, Lifestyle activities, Menopause, Social participation, Wellbeing
145-150
Falkingham, Jane
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Evandrou, Maria
cd2210ea-9625-44d7-b0f4-fc0721a25d28
Qin, Min
10d55bfb-f7e6-409a-bcc5-6d2ba1f743e8
Vlachantoni, Athina
06a52fbb-f2a0-4c81-9fbc-d6efc736c6cb
29 January 2021
Falkingham, Jane
8df36615-1547-4a6d-ad55-aa9496e85519
Evandrou, Maria
cd2210ea-9625-44d7-b0f4-fc0721a25d28
Qin, Min
10d55bfb-f7e6-409a-bcc5-6d2ba1f743e8
Vlachantoni, Athina
06a52fbb-f2a0-4c81-9fbc-d6efc736c6cb
Falkingham, Jane, Evandrou, Maria, Qin, Min and Vlachantoni, Athina
(2021)
Chinese women’s health and wellbeing in middle life: unpacking the influence of menopause, lifestyle activities and social participation.
Maturitas, 143, .
(doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2020.10.008).
Abstract
Objectives: to examine Chinese middle-aged women's health and wellbeing and the associated biosocial correlates. Study design: This study used a cross-sectional design, including selected retrospectively collected information on the final menstrual period, drawn from the 2013 wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Women aged 45 to 59 were selected.
Main outcome measures: factor analysis of 16 menopausal symptom ratings yielded four different and independent measures of pre-/peri-menopausal and early postmenopausal women's health. These were: negative mood (feel frustrated, sad, lonely, worried, bored, angry, tired and stressed), positive emotions (feel enthusiastic, content and happy), musculoskeletal pain (shoulder/neck pain, knee and other joint pain, and back pain), and sleep and memory problems (trouble sleeping and poor memory).
Results: menopausal status was positively associated with sleep and memory problems, whilst the number of years since the final menstrual period was positively associated with musculoskeletal pain. In contrast, lifestyle activities and social participation were linked to positive emotions. The association between selected biosocial factors and negative mood was not significant after controlling for other demographic and social background factors.
Conclusions: musculoskeletal health as well as sleep and memory problems are positively associated with menopausal biological factors amongst Chinese mid-life women. Maintaining active social engagement contributes to positive wellbeing among middle-aged women.
Text
Chinese women’s health and wellbeing in middle life
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 14 October 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 22 October 2020
Published date: 29 January 2021
Keywords:
China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, Health, Lifestyle activities, Menopause, Social participation, Wellbeing
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 444895
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444895
ISSN: 0378-5122
PURE UUID: 00b7eca7-7f11-4d40-81d9-777d43b38a98
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Date deposited: 10 Nov 2020 17:31
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 04:17
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