Investigating the relationship between physical activity and serum markers associated with bone metabolism and demographic characteristics in postmenopausal women aged 50 to 65 years in Tabriz By: Saeedollah Azimi Shomali Supervisors: Dr.Azizeh Farshbaf Khalili Dr. Fariba Eslamian Advisor: Dr.Neda Dolatkhah June 2020 Thesis NO: 94/2-

Abstract

Menopause exposes women to extensive changes caused by low estrogen levels around menopause. Physical activity plays an important role in stabilizing normal blood circulation and other physiological activities of the body during menopause and can reduce the clinical symptoms of menopause and create better conditions and quality of life in postmenopausal women. Given the important role of physical activity on markers affecting bone health, especially in postmenopausal women, who are exposed to more bone loss than other groups as a result of changes in hormone levels, this study aims to investigate. The relationship between physical activity and serum markers related to bone metabolism and demographic characteristics in postmenopausal women aged 50 to 60 years was designed and implemented in Tabriz. Materials and Methods: This study was performed based on the information of 507 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 65 years in Tabriz who were collected by simple random sampling from Tabriz health complexes. After meeting the criteria Entry into the study and obtaining a written consent, the Social-Individual Specifications Questionnaire, Reproductive-Medical and IPAQ Physical Activities were completed.Then, 3 blood samples were taken for initial calcium, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase testing and was transferred to the Nutrition Research Center by the researcher.Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics including Kruskal Wallis, Mann-Whitney U, Spearman rho correlation and linear regression tests in SPSS 21 software. Results: The mean age of the patients in this study was 56.9 years with a standard deviation of 3.9 years. The mean age of menopause among the samples was 48.6 years. Frequency of people based on BMI classification showed that 11.1% of the samples were in the normal group, 41.7% were overweight and 47.2% were obese. More than 99% of the subjects confirmed light physical activity, while only 14.9% had vigorous physical activity. Among the individual and social characteristics, education level (p=0.036), occupation (p=0.009), income (p= 0.036), smoking status (p = 0.028), exposure to sunlight (p = 0.006), drug use (p= 0.048) and exercise (p= 0.00) had a significant effect on physical activity ofindividuals, but none of the characteristics of fertility had significanteffect on physical activity. The median ofphysical activity was more in the individuals with college education, occupied wonen, with sufficiene income, exposed with sunlight, smokers, not users of any drugs. Overall physical activity is directly related to vitamin D3 and alkaline phosphatase markers and indirectly and inversely to phosphorus and calcium markers. However, this relationship was statistically significant only for calcium (β=-0.108, 95% CI: -0.098 to-0.117; p=0.023).