Study identifies factors associated with age at menopause among Chinese women

There appears to be a broad range of sociodemographic, lifestyle, dietary and reproductive factors related to age at menopause among Chinese women, according to a study. For example, housewives, those with earlier menarche, and passive smokers are more likely to have premature or early menopause.

Researchers used cross-sectional data from the China Kadoorie Biobank study, which involved 500,000 (300,000 women) Chinese adults aged 30–79 years. They applied multinomial logistic regression models to evaluate the link between age at natural menopause and various factors collected at baseline.

The analysis included 87,349 postmenopausal women, among whom the mean age at natural menopause was 48.7 years. Results showed that both premature (<40 years) and early menopause (40–44 years) were associated with older age, being a housewife, earlier menarche, and passive smoking.

The odds of having early menopause were high among women who were widowed (odds ratio [OR], 1.10, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.04–1.16), had a history of spontaneous abortion (OR, 1.33, 95 percent CI, 1.05–1.69), were regularly smoking (OR, 1.19, 95 percent CI, 1.07–1.37), and had frequent spicy food intake (OR, 1.11, 95 percent CI, 1.05–1.08).

Furthermore, premature and/or early menopause showed inverse associations with higher socioeconomic status, first birth at later age, multiparity and induced abortions, longer breastfeeding duration, increased body mass index gain, tea drinking, as well as intakes of meat, fruits, dairy, and soybean products.

Meanwhile, women who had more pregnancies, were occasional alcohol drinkers, had higher levels of physical activity or body mass index, vitamin intake, and hypertension tended to have their menopause at a later age (≥53 years).