Association between modified mediterranean diet score and menopause-specific quality of life and symptoms: a cross-sectional study

In recent times, research has delved into the impact of dietary elements on alleviating menopausal symptoms. We endeavored to examine the correlation between the modified Mediterranean diet score (mMDS) and quality of life, menopausal symptoms, discriminative ability and determination of the optimal cut-off point. A total of one hundred forty-nine postmenopausal females were selected to participate in the cross-sectional study from June 2021 to June 2022. Upon completion of data collection through interviews, the relevant variables were calculated. The assessment of participants' food consumption in the preceding year was conducted using a 117-item food frequency questionnaire. postmenopausal women who were referred to healthcare clinics in Lar. The participants were exclusively women aged 40 and above who had not undergone a menstrual cycle for a minimum of 12 months. We observed that mMDS associated with the severity of sexual and vasomotor symptoms. The third tertile of mMDS had a significantly lower odds ratio for severe to moderate sexual (OR: 0.17; 95% CI: 0.068, 0.450) and vasomotor (OR: 0.20; 95% CI: 0.064, 0.658) symptoms compared to the first tertile. Also, mMDS showed significant discriminative ability in identifying women with severe to moderate poor quality of life (AUC = 0.997, 95% CI = 0.988-1.000; p-value = 0.001), vasomotor (AUC = 0.727, p-value < 0.001), psychological (AUC = 0.867, p-value < 0.001), physical (AUC = 0.934, p-value < 0.001) and sexual symptoms (AUC = 0.753; p-value < 0.001). There is promising yet incongruous data indicating the potential of the Mediterranean diet in the management of vasomotor symptoms in menopausal women. Further comprehensive, extended research is essential for the development of precise dietary recommendations.