Association of diet and other lifestyle with onset of menopause in Japanese women

Objectives: To evaluate the cross-sectional relationships of dietary and other lifestyle variables to menopause. Mothods: A total of 4186 female residents aged 45-55 in Takayama City, Japan, responded to a self-administered questionnaire (the response rate was 89.3%). Diet in the past year was assessed by semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Using the logistic regression model, associations between study variables and menopausal status were estimated in terms of odds ratio (OR). Results: Nulliparity and lower relative weight were significantly associated with menopause after controlling for age (P<0.05). The association of smoking with menopause was marginally significant after controlling for age (P = 0.06). Higher intakes of fat, cholesterol, and coffee were inversely and significantly associated with later menopause after controlling for age, total energy, parity, menarche age, and relative weight (ORs for the highest tertiles of fat, cholesterol and coffee intakes were 0.78, 0.79, and 0.70, respectively, P < 0.05). The highest tertiles of calcium and soy product intakes were significantly associated with menopause after controlling for the covariates (ORs = 1.25 and 1.42, respectively, P < 0.05), but postmenopausal women who had menopause at later age showed higher calcium intake than those who had menopause at early age. Conclusion: Dietary factors appear to be associated with onset of menopause. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.