RELATIONSHIP OF MENOPAUSAL STATUS AND SEX-HORMONES TO SERUM-LIPIDS AND BLOOD-PRESSURE

Wu Z (Department of Epidemiology, Anhui Medical University, Meishan Road, Hefei, Anhui Province, P.R. of China), Wu X and Zhang Y. Relationship of menopausal status and sex hormones to serum lipids and blood pressure. International Journal of Epidemiology 1990, 19: 297-302.Arterial blood pressure and serum lipids were measured in 598 Chinese women aged 40-54 years. Menopausal or post-menopausal women had higher means of serum cholesterol, triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol, and had higher prevalence of hypertension, hypotension, hypercholesterolaemia and hypertriglyceridaemia than premenopausal counterparts. There were no differences in means of systolic and diastolic pressures among pre-menopausal, menopausal and postmenopausal women. Fat Synergic Index was first used in this study instead of Quetelex Index, and it was found that Fat Synergic Index is the strongest factor which affects serum cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol and systolic and diastolic blood pressure in multiple linear regression analyses. The role of oestradiol, progesterone and testosterone in three serum-lipid multiple regression models are different, but they are similar in systolic and diastolic blood pressure regression models. Conditional logistic regression analysis found that progesterone is a protective factor only and testosterone is one of the risk factors for hypertension. © 1990 International Epidemiological Association.