Exercise and Quality of Life in Women with Menopausal Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

• Main Authors: Thi Mai Nguyen, Thi Thanh Toan Do, Tho Nhi Tran, Jin Hee Kim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-09-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: exercise; quality of life; menopausal symptoms; meta-analysis
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7049
• ISSN: 1661-7827; 1660-4601

Menopausal symptoms are associated with deterioration in physical, mental, and sexual health, lowering women’s quality of life (QoL). Our study objective is to examine the effect of exercise on QoL in women with menopausal symptoms. After initially identifying 1306 studies published on PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane Library before June 2020, two researchers independently selected nine randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in which any type of exercise was compared with no active treatment. We assessed the risk of bias in the included studies using the Cochrane risk-of-bias 2.0 tool for RCTs and computed the converged standardized mean difference with a 95% confidence interval. We found evidences for the positive effects of exercise on physical and psychological QoL scores in women with menopausal symptoms. However, there was no evidence for the effects of exercise on<b> </b>general, social, and menopause-specific QoL scores. The most common interventions for women with menopausal and urinary symptoms were yoga and pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT), respectively. In our meta-analyses, while yoga significantly improved physical QoL, its effects on general, psychological, sexual, and vasomotor symptoms QoL scores as well as the effect of PFMT on general QoL were not significant.<b> </b>Our findings suggest that well-designed studies are needed to confirm the effect of exercise on QoL in women with menopausal symptoms.