Quality of life and its relationship to stress perception and anthropometric profile in adult women

Abstract

Perimenopause produces hormonal and emotional changes, which could influence quality of life as well as stress perception in women. The objective of this study was to evaluate quality of life and its relationship with stress perception and anthropometric profile in adult women. A cross-sectional study was carried out in adult women (40-65 years old) who attended the Fundación Hemocentro Buenos Aires. Nutritional status was evaluated with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC). Quality of life was assessed using the World Health Organization quality of life questionnaire. Perception of stress was assessed by the perceived stress scale (PSS-10). We included 128 women (52.3% premenopausal and 47.7% postmenopausal). Over half (56.3%) reported having a quality of life between fairly good and very good. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 60.2% (95% CI, 51.5 – 68.2%). The perception of quality of life was inversely associated to the BMI (p= 0.0031) as well as the physical (p= 0.016) and psychological domains of quality of life (p= 0.001). Similarly, perceived stress was associated inversely with the quality of life perception (p= 0.008) and the four quality of life domains.