Emotional Antecedents of Hot Flashes During Daily Life

Thurston, Rebecca C.; Blumenthal, James A.; Babyak, Michael A.; Sherwood, Andrew

doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000149255.04806.07

Cited by 107 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…High perceived control has been reported to be associated with the reporting of fewer and less severe symptoms in diverse areas [21][22][23], and also specifically in relation to HF [13,37]. In this sample, this association was very strong and significant, even after controlling for all the socio-demographic, health-and menopauserelated factors, as well as a variety of lifestyle variables.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Perceived control, lifestyle, health, socio-demographic factors and menopause: Impact on hot flashes and night sweats

Pimenta¹,

Leal²,

Marôco³

et al. 2011

Maturitas

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a b s t r a c tObjective: To develop a model to predict the perceived severity of hot flashes (HF) and night sweats (NS) in symptomatic middle-aged women.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of a community-based sample of 243 women with vasomotor symptoms. Menopausal status was ascertained using the 'Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop' criteria. Women's 'perceived control' over their symptoms was measured by a validated Portuguese version of the Perceived Control over Hot Flushes Index. Structural equation modelling was employed to construct a causal model of self-reported severity of both HF and NS, using a set of 20 variables: age, marital status, parity, professional status, educational level, family annual income, recent diseases and psychological problems, medical help-seeking behaviour to manage menopausal symptoms, use of hormone therapy and herbal/soy products, menopause status, intake of alcohol, coffee and hot beverages, smoking, physical exercise, body mass index and perceived control. Results: Significant predictors of perceived severity were the use of hormone therapy for both HF (ˇ = −.245; p = .022) and NS (ˇ = −.298; p = .008), coffee intake for both HF (ˇ = −.234; p = .039) and NS (ˇ = −.258; p = .029) and perceived control for both HF (ˇ = −1.0; p < .001) and NS (ˇ = −1.0; p < .001). The variables explained respectively 67% and 72% of the variability in the perceived severity of HF and NS. Women with high perceived control had a significantly lower frequency (t(235) = 2.022; p = .044) and intensity of HF (t(217) = 3.582; p < .001); similarly, participants with high perceived control presented a lower frequency (t(235) = 3.267; p < .001) and intensity (t(210) = 3.376; p < .001) of NS. Conclusion: Perceived control was the strongest predictor of the self-reported severity of both HF and NS. Other causal predictors were hormone therapy and caffeine intake. All three were associated with less severe vasomotor symptoms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Perceived control, lifestyle, health, socio-demographic factors and menopause: Impact on hot flashes and night sweats

Pimenta¹,

Leal²,

Marôco³

et al. 2011

Maturitas

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“…Vasomotor symptoms were assessed using brief self-report measures about number of days experiencing vasomotor symptoms, which yield some information about frequency but not symptom intensity or bothersomeness. Retrospective self-report measures may also be vulnerable to the impact of psychological factors, 54,67,68 although adjusting for affective factors did not attenuate results. As with the majority of investigations of abuse and physical symptoms, use of self-report measures for abuse and symptoms may be associated with common method variance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…15,30 Moreover, in research with physiological measures of hot flashes, depressive and anxious symptoms are associated with increased reporting of hot flashes not detected physiologically. 54 Notably, childhood abuse has been demonstrated to be a significant risk factor for mood and anxiety disorders in adult women across multiple investigations. [2][3][4][5] However, adjusting for these negative affective factors had little impact on the observed relations between abuse and vasomotor symptoms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood abuse or neglect is associated with increased vasomotor symptom reporting among midlife women

et al. 2008

Self Cite

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Objectives-This study tested the hypothesis that women exposed to childhood abuse or neglect would have an increased likelihood of reporting hot flashes and night sweats during the menopausal transition.Design-This hypothesis was evaluated in 332 white and African American women participating in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation Mental Health Study, a prospective investigation of women transitioning through menopause. Childhood abuse and neglect were measured once with the Child Trauma Questionnaire. Vasomotor symptoms (any/none hot flashes, night sweats) were reported annually over 8 years. Associations between maltreatment and vasomotor symptoms were estimated with generalized estimating equations.Results-Childhood abuse or neglect was associated with increased reporting of hot flashes (odds ratio = 1.73, 95% CI: 1.23-2.43) and night sweats (odds ratio = 1.75, 95% CI: 1.26-2.43) in ageadjusted models. Results persisted in multivariable models and across several types of abuse and neglect.Conclusions-The experience of childhood abuse and neglect is associated with increased vasomotor symptom reporting in adulthood. The sequelae of childhood abuse and neglect may persist well into adulthood to influence the occurrence of vasomotor symptoms at midlife. KeywordsMenopause; Vasomotor symptoms; Hot flashes; Child abuse; Neglect; Maltreatment Childhood abuse and neglect are highly prevalent in the United States, with estimates in 2004 from the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families indicating rates at 11.2 per 1,000 boys and 12.6 per 1,000 girls. 1 Across multiple investigations experiences of abuse and neglect in childhood have been linked to significantly elevated risk of several adverse health outcomes, including a range of psychiatric disorders, 2-5 substance abuse problems, 2,6 eating disorders, 7,8 and poor self-rated health. 6,9 In the case of physical health conditions, significant associations are most consistently observed for symptomatic conditions that include headache, The aim of this investigation was to examine the association between childhood abuse and vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes, night sweats) over the menopausal transition. Given the association between childhood abuse and other physical symptoms, reporting of vasomotor symptoms may be elevated among women who have experienced childhood abuse or neglect. Moreover, childhood abuse and neglect have been associated with behavioral, affective, and neuroendocrine factors also linked to vasomotor symptoms, 15,[30][31][32][33][34][35] including smoking and obesity, 36-38 depression and anxiety, 2 and alterations in key neuroendocrine [39][40][41][42][43] and reproductive hormone 44 systems. Thus, we hypothesized that women exposed to childhood abuse or neglect would be more likely to report vasomotor symptoms than women who had not been exposed to abuse or neglect. Secondary aims, examined in an exploratory fashion, were (1) to evaluate the association between different types of maltreatment (emotional abuse, physical abuse...

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“…When hot flashes are objectively measured, as with sternal skin conductance, women sometimes feel hot flashes that are recorded objectively by the monitor (true positives), but there is rarely complete concordance between subjective and objective measures. Some women report hot flashes that they do not physiologically demonstrate (false negatives), while other women demonstrate physiological hot flashes that they do not feel (false positives) (Carpenter et al, 2004;Sievert, 2007;Sievert et al, 2002;Thurston et al, 2005). Reasons for this lack of concordance may include climate or cultural factors such as activity patterns or the degree to which menopause has been medicalized.…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

Patterns of occurrence and concordance between subjective and objective hot flashes among Muslim and Hindu women in Sylhet, Bangladesh

Sievert

Begum

Sharmeen

et al. 2008

American J Hum Biol

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This study examined the pattern of occurrence and the rate of concordance between objective hot flashes measured by sternal skin conductance and the subjective experience of "gorom vap laga" (feeling steaming hot) among Muslim and Hindu women living in Sylhet, Bangladesh. Participants were aged 40-55, not pregnant or lactating, not using hormone therapy, and with no history of hysterectomy. Thirty women wore an ambulatory hot flash monitor for 8 h on average, from mid-morning to early evening. True positive, false negative, and false positive measures of hot flashes were examined in relation to demographic, reproductive, and lifestyle variables. On body diagrams, women were most likely to indicate hot flashes on the top of their head (64%) and upper chest (68%). The greatest number of objective hot flashes occurred during the hour of 17:00, perhaps due to the heat of the day, and the clothing and activity associated with prayer. Muslim participants demonstrated more objective hot flashes per woman than Hindu participants (1.5 vs. 0.1, P < 0.05), and Muslims had more false positive measures (86%) compared with Hindu participants (0%, P = 0.06). Among all women who reported subjective hot flashes (n = 19), the proportion of true positive scores was 19%. Overall, the frequency of objective hot flashes was low compared with reports from studies in the United States. The pattern of sweating assessed by body diagrams was not associated with variation in hot flash experience.

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Emotional Antecedents of Hot Flashes During Daily Life

Cited by 107 publications

References 51 publications

Perceived control, lifestyle, health, socio-demographic factors and menopause: Impact on hot flashes and night sweats

Perceived control, lifestyle, health, socio-demographic factors and menopause: Impact on hot flashes and night sweats

Childhood abuse or neglect is associated with increased vasomotor symptom reporting among midlife women

Patterns of occurrence and concordance between subjective and objective hot flashes among Muslim and Hindu women in Sylhet, Bangladesh

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