Eating attitudes, depressive symptoms, physical activity levels and menopausal symptoms of postmenopausal women diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a case-control study

The purpose of this study is to compare the eatingt attitudes, depressive symptoms, physical activity levels, and menopausal symptoms of postmenopausal women who had been diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and women without. This study utilized a case-control design and included 137 postmenopausal women, 70 women in the case group and 67 women in the control group. The case group was composed of all postmenopausal women who were registered in the COVID-19 polyclinic of a public hospital in Turkey, who had positive PCR results, and who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 at least one month before. Each woman in the case group was matched by age (+/- 1 year) with controls who visited the Family Health Center for any reason and who did not have suspected or confirmed COVID-19 disease. Data were collected using the Socio-demographic Form, the Eating Attitudes Test, the Beck Depression Inventory, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form, and the Menopause Rating Scale between the 27(th) of January and the 5(th) of March 2021. Statistical analyses included percentage distributions, arithmetic means, standard deviation, t-test in independent groups, chi-square, Cronbach's alpha reliability analysis, binary logistic regression analysis, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results showed that women who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 had the risk of experiencing postmenopausal symptoms 1.36 times more than the women without (OR = 1.36 , %95 CI 1.084-1.48, p < .001). A statistically significant difference was found between women who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and women without (F = 7.372, p < .05) in the ANCOVA model established to see the effect of depressive symptoms, physical activity levels, and eating attitudes on menopausal symptoms by eliminating the effects of smoking, age and menopause hormone therapy (MHT) use, and it explained 4.2% of the variance (Ƞ2 = .042). This study showed that postmenopausal women who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 experienced more menopausal symptoms. Health professionals are recommended to carefully evaluate the menopausal symptoms of postmenopausal women who had been diagnosed with COVID-19.