EARLY MENOPAUSE AND PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE IN WOMEN: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
Early menopause. Women. Aging. Muscle strength. Functional physical performance.
Introduction: Aging brings a set of significant chances for individuals, including the progressive decline in body functions, such as skills related to the musculoskeletal system, which result in increased functional limitations and impaired independence. This process is common for both sexes, however women seem to have more decline and health consequences compared to men. A possible explanation for this event can be attributed to changes in reproductive life from menopause. Women's physical performance varies with age at menopause, however, few studies have investigated this relationship. Objective: To conduct a systematic literature review to identify the relationship of menopausal age in functionality through physical performance measures in women from different population contexts. Methods: This is a systematic review of the scientific literature, following the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA) in the elaboration, considering the adapted PICO strategy. The target population of the study was postmenopausal women who had been assessed for age at menopause and functionality. The search strategy used the words and equation previously defined with the following descriptors “menopause and physical and (performance or function*)”. The databases listed for the searches were: PubMed, Cochrane Library, SciELO, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS), Web of Science, as well as references from the resulting studies in the review. We included all observational studies that used both subjective and objective physical performance tests, without restriction on year of publication, languages and availability of complete articles for access. Articles in which the population studied had specific diseases and/or events that could have led to early menopause, such as cancerous diseases, were excluded. To construction of this review, a protocol was prepared and registered in the PROSPERO platform, being approved and published with the number CRD42019126644. The selection process of the included articles was performed blindly, in pairs, and a separate researcher, in case of discrepancy between the pairs, required the tiebreaker/decision. Results: After the initial search in the listed databases, 3124 results were found, of which 2952 were excluded, 2437 due to inadequacy with the theme and 515 duplicates. The remaining 172 articles were analyzed by reading the full text, which resulted in the selection of 7 articles. Of these, 3 were later excluded because they did not present the classification of early menopause, leaving 4 articles included in the analysis.