Walking together: women with the severe symptoms of menopause propose a platform for a walking program; outcome from focus groups.

BACKGROUND: Menopause and midlife are stages in a woman's life that can be marked by debilitating symptoms and increasing risks for cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic, and bone health issues. Walking represents a simple, low cost, and widely accessible activity with proven health benefits, though its therapeutic effect on alleviating menopause symptoms is not well characterized. Women are generally not opposed to exercise programs; however, increasing or maintaining exercise levels remains a challenge. We undertook a qualitative descriptive study to explore features of a walking program that would be conductive to menopausal women's participation, as well as to inform the development of such a program. METHODS: We conducted focus groups with women recruited from two menopause clinics and who suffered from moderate to severe menopause symptoms. The focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed. Women were prompted to talk about their menopause experience and exercise practice and how they would envision a walking exercise program that would keep them engaged. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data and to identify characteristics of a walking exercise program. RESULTS: Twenty women participated in 5 focus groups. Women were very interested in trying walking as a means of staying healthy and possibly reducing menopause symptoms. Four major characteristics emerged as important for a walking program: (a) sensitivity to health realities of menopausal women, (b) inclusivity of various needs/levels of physical ability, (c) attentiveness to the need for mutual social support, (d) flexibility in planning of locations and scheduling. A restricted social network platform with features catering to women in menopause was suggested as suitable to initiate and sustain an adequate walking program. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study will be essential in designing a program that would be attractive for women to start and maintain a walking habit. The program would assist in elucidating whether walking is a useful and valuable alternative therapy for menopausal symptoms and, ultimately, might help women staying fit in midlife and postmenopausal.

Can walking exercise programs improve health for women in menopause transition and postmenopausal? Findings from a scoping review.

OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to explore the range and characteristics of published papers on therapeutic walking programs for menopausal women and to identify program features that resulted in successful outcomes including reduced symptoms and improved long-term wellness. METHODS: We searched biomedical and exercise-related databases for articles published up to June 1, 2017, using keywords related to menopause and walking. Data were collected into EndNote X8 reference manager to identify and remove duplicates. The final selection included all articles that studied walking as a health intervention for women in menopause transition or postmenopausal. RESULTS: A total of 3,244 papers were collected from the six databases. After removing duplicates and applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 96 articles were charted, including 77 different walking programs. Walking interventions ranged from 4 weeks to 3 years with an average weekly frequency of 3.8 ±â€Š1.8 and were applied to a variety of symptoms and their biological markers and risk factors. Overall, 91% of the programs showed a beneficial outcome in at least one menopause-related medical issue. Information on menopause-specific symptoms, especially vasomotor symptoms and sleep problems, was scarce. CONCLUSION: The scoping review highlights the growing interest in walking programs as therapies for menopause and related symptoms and provides evidence of their possible benefit as a wellness option for women in menopause and beyond. Further research would be recommended to establish the therapeutic value of walking programs for women with specific focus on typical menopause symptoms at different stages of menopause. : Video Summary:http://links.lww.com/MENO/A587.

Video Summary:http://links.lww.com/MENO/A587.