This study performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the health effects of Baduanjin exercise on adults aged 65 years and older. Chinese and English databases were electronically searched using search terms related to the PICO model from inception through June 2021. The study quality assessment and meta-analysis were conducted using the PEDro scale and RevMan 5.4 software. Eleven included Chinese studies, published between 2015 and 2021, recruited participants from the mainland of China. The aggregated results showed significant benefits of Baduanjin on physical function, walking ability, balance, and anxiety. A long-term Baduanjin intervention could also improve quality of life and reduce falls and pain. Baduanjin appears to have the potential to improve the health of older adults, but conclusions are limited due to the lack of rigorous and robust studies within and outside of mainland China. Larger, well-designed RCTs are needed to confirm these findings.
Objective:
Many studies have focused on the severity and prevalence of menopausal symptoms among middle-aged women, which are limited by heterogeneity and diversity of subtypes. Subtyping facilitates the adaptation to prevention and clinical intervention strategies that target women. To determine the existence of significant subgroups of women with similar menopausal symptoms, a person-centered approach was used to identify potential profiles of women during the menopausal transition. In addition, we aimed to examine the association between latent subtypes and individual factors.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study included 797 middle-aged women, aged 40 to 60 years, who were recruited from Shandong Province, China, between December 2017 and August 2018. We identified the subtypes in menopausal symptoms by performing a latent class analysis according to the self-reported Menopause Rating Scale and evaluated the robustness of our identified subtypes using a sensitivity analysis. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to explore the association between emergent latent subtypes and sociodemographic, clinical, and psychosocial characteristics.
Results:
The mean age of participants was 49.83 ± 5.05 years. (1) Four potential classes were identified in middle-aged women: “severe symptoms” (14.9%), “dominant sleep-emotion symptoms” (31.4%), “physical/mental exhaustion symptoms” (32.5%), and “no symptoms” (21.2%). The four classes were also verified using a sensitivity analysis according to age and menopause status subgroups, which revealed the robust subtypes of menopausal symptoms. (2) The odds ratio of neuroticism, chronic diseases, and gynecological diseases were significantly higher for the “severe symptoms,” “dominant sleep-emotion symptoms,” and “physical/mental exhaustion symptoms” classes, compared to the “no symptoms” class, while the odds ratio of mindfulness and social support were lower.
Conclusions:
A person-centered approach for middle-aged women could address the unmet need to understand the heterogeneity of menopausal symptoms. Subtyping facilitates the identification of the potential causes of menopausal symptoms and the development of personalized interventions.
Video Summary:
http://links.lww.com/MENO/A830.
Menopausal syndrome, which is a common and on-going problem among women during the menopausal transition, has negative effects on their mental health, body function, social life, and sense of well-being. [1][2][3] Menopausal syndrome is characterized by a variety of aspects, including somatic (e.g., vasomotor symptoms, insomnia, bone and joint pain), psychological (e.g., irritability, anxiety, memory loss), and urogenital (e.g., sexual problems, vaginal dryness) symptoms. 3 The growing concern for middle-aged women's menopausal syndrome has led to a large number of studies exploring effective strategies to manage these symptoms, and to improve the health and well-being in this group.Previous studies have examined the severity and prevalence of menopausal symptoms using measurements with summed item scores and/or individual item score. 4,5 However, none of these studies focused on the inner structure of menopausal syndrome of middle-aged women, including the central and bridge symptoms.Studies have looked at the associations between different menopausal symptoms. For example, hot flashes were significantly associated with vaginal dryness, where they were the most important and distressing symptoms among middle-aged women. 6 Studies
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