A multidisciplinary group of the Universidad de Granada, formed by a physiologist, a physiotherapist, a family physician, a bachelor of Physical Education, a psychologist and a nurse, has carried out a study aimed at assessing the quality of life in women during menopause.
A group of 48 women was recruited in a primary health care consulting room have participated in the study and they were randomly distributed into two groups: a control and an experimental group. The women of the experimental group have participated in a controlled exercise program. They all have sedentary habits, belong to a rural environment and live in the family home. Most of them are married (77.1%), do not have primary studies (89.6%), are housewives (93.8%) and have been suffering the symptoms of menopause for more than ten years. 72.9% had started their menopause naturally, rather than after surgery.
Programmed exercise
Before starting the program sessions, they carried out a functional assessment of the treatment to identify women’s physical conditions in terms of articular mobility, flexibility, balance, coordination, strength and cardio-respiratory resistance, in order to plan the activities suitably as regards the individual conditions detected and control them individually.
It is an exercise plan adapted to the characteristics of women, with exercises of cardio-respiratory resistance, stretching, muscle-strengthening and relaxation. The program has been developed for a year, in the ratio of 3 hours per week 3, in moderate intensity sessions and fully monitored, as these women had never carried out an exercise plan. The sessions have been carried out with optimum temperature conditions and with background music.
In this type of studies, they also assess patients´ subjective perception, which can be compared to that of professionals by means of objectives tests of analytic, clinic and radiological parameters. Menopausal symptoms have been evaluated with Kupper’s rate, a scale in which women evaluate every symptom according to the intensity. According to Carmen Villaverde, of the department of Nursing of the Universidad de Granada, they have observed that 50% of the experimental group showed severe symptoms at the beginning of the program, compared to the final 37%. 58% of the women of the non-exercise group informed them of their problems at the beginning of the study, and it rose to 67% in the same period.
Informal carers
According to the researcher, the studies about quality of life are an important advance in the relation with patients, as they take into account their viewpoint and it allows them to be part of the therapeutic process. They also provide valuable information to evaluate different treatments or therapeutic strategies, which include drugs, hygienic-dietetic measures, physical exercise, physiotherapy, psychotherapy, etc., resulting in an important way of evaluation of sanitary assistance. The application of this kind of studios can provide information of deferent aspects of socio-sanitary attention from a new perspective: the perspective of patients. Therefore, “in postmenopausal women, physical exercise must e included in primary care programs, especially taking into account that these menopausal women are the main informal carers, and they need both institutional support and socio-sanitary attention”. At present, the research group is working on this supervision line through therapeutic physical exercise.
The study has been published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, and has been included in international communication media such as Fox News in the USA, New Kerala, in India, Innovations Report, in Germany, and Medical News Today, in the UK.
Reference
Professor Carmen Villaverde-Gutiérrez. Dpt of Nursing
Phone number. 958 242 362 / 958 243 493
E-mail. carmenvg@ugr.es
