Hot flushes and night sweats in midlife : Why do some women have them and others do not?

• Autor(a) principal: Pimenta, Filipa
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Marôco, J. P., Ramos, Catarina, Leal, I.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/4152
• topic: Hot flushes; Night sweats; Stress; Depressive mood; Structural equation modelling; Afrontamentos; Suores noturnos; Estresse; Humor deprimido; Modelos de equações estruturais

This study investigated what predicts the occurrence of hot fl ushes (HF) and night sweats (NS). A community sample of 992 women (42-60 years) answered a questionnaire to collect socio-demographic, health and menopause-related, as well as lifestyle information. Depressive mood and stress, as well as HF and NS (in terms of presence, frequency and intensity), were also assessed. Structural equation modelling was used to build a structural model to predict the occurrence of both vasomotor symptoms. Results: Stress predicted NS (β =.154; p =.006), whereas depressive mood was linked to the occurrence of HF’s (β =.149; p =.006). Being peri-menopausal and post-menopausal, among several other characteristics, were also signifi cant predictors of the occurrence of both HF and NS. This study supports a distinguished infl uence of stress and depressive mood in NS and HF respectively, probably due to the nature of psychological symptoms. Moreover, signifi cant associations between vasomotor symptoms and socio-demographic, health and menopause-related characteristics, and alcohol were confirmed.