Physical Activity Variations Around Menopausal Hot Flashes

Abstract

Hot flashes (HF) are a common vasomotor symptom during menopause, known to affect quality of life. Few studies have investigated the association between physical activity (PA) and HF frequency; the acute impact of a HF on PA has yet to be examined. Ambulatory electrophysiological HF monitoring allows for the objective identification of HF events and PA changes surrounding the HF event. We hypothesize that PA will change after the occurrence of a HF regardless of time of day providing evidence of a disturbance to pre-HF PA. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine changes in accelerometer-measured PA before and after HFs in menopausal people across the day. METHODS: Fifteen menopausal participants (age 54.4 ± 4.3 yrs) experiencing daily HF wore an accelerometer (ActiGraph GT9X+) on the non-dominant wrist and a trans-sternal electrodermal activity (EDA) monitor for 2 wear periods of 2 consecutive days (average wear: 39.5 ± 2.8 hrs per session). We identified HF using the EDA monitor and calculated vector magnitude activity counts (VAC) using ActiGraph data. Days were divided into morning (5 AM -12 PM), afternoon (12 - 6 PM), and evening (6 PM -12 AM) periods. The PA patterns around HF were calculated as differences in VAC 10 minutes before and after each HF then averaged across all HF occurrences by time period for each participant. A positive value indicates that PA movement increased from before to after a hot flash. RESULTS: The mean VAC was 2732830 ± 787023 per day within two sessions of 48 h each. The mean of differences in VAC post to pre HF were morning: 2162 (95% CI 483, 3840, HF = 14.7 ± 8.0); afternoon: -1047 (95% CI -4383, 2290, HF = 10.6 ± 6.2); evening: 1058 (95% CI -3296, 5412, HF = 8.8 ± 5.8), and all waking hours: 997 (95% CI -69, 2062, HF events = 34.1 ± 18.6). Overall, 13/15, 7/15, 10/13, and 12/15 participants increased post-HF PA during, morning, afternoon, evening, and all waking hours, respectively. Two participants did not report a HF during evening. CONCLUSIONS: PA behavioral pattern shows most participants tend to move more after experiencing HF compared to before. However, we do not see this trend, on average, during the afternoon. These findings suggest that accounting for HFs are important when identifying changes in PA during menopause. Supported by Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and Embr Labs