A later menopausal age is associated with a lower prevalence of physical frailty in community-dwelling older adults: The Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study (KFACS)

Abstract

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to determine whether age at menopause is associated with physical frailty. MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study that included 1264 women (70–84 years) from the Korean and Aging Cohort Study (KFACS) who had records of their ages at menarche and their ages at menopause and had experienced a natural menopause. We used Fried criteria to assess physical frailty status. The ages at menopause and menarche were collected using self-reported questionnaires. ResultsThe prevalence of physical frailty decreased by 5.3 % with each year of increase in age at menopause after adjusting for age, marital status, years of education, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, polypharmacy, hospitalizations, falls, and hormone replacement therapy (p = 0.005). The prevalence of frailty significantly decreased by 4.1 % when the reproductive span increased by a year (p = 0.019). ConclusionsThis study found that a later menopausal age was associated with a lower risk of frailty using Fried criteria. In addition, it showed that a longer reproductive span was associated with a lower prevalence of frailty.