Physical Activity Compositional Data Analysis On Depressive Symptoms During Menopause

PURPOSE: Menopause presents a challenging phase for midlife women, with changes in hormone levels, stress, physical activity, body composition, and psychological symptoms often accompanying the change in menstrual patterns. We used compositional data analysis (CoDA) to investigate how predicted changes in sleep, sedentary behaviors, and physical activity (PA) might benefit these challenges for menopausal midlife women. METHODS: 121 midlife women (aged 52.85 ± 6.2 years) participated in a cross-sectional design. Assessments included demographics, 24-hour PA time-use composition obtained by Actigraph accelerometry, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL) Questionnaire, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), salivary cortisol, and body composition via dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). One-to-one CoDA were used to explore predicted changes in menopausal symptoms, depressive symptoms, stress, cortisol, and body composition (fat mass), with 20-min time reallocations between sedentary behaviors, light PA (LPA), and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA). Estimated response curves were based on the significant regressions on isometric log ratio coordinates of time-use composition, adjusted for age, with 95% CI. RESULTS: Significant R2 changes were observed for the psychological domain of the MSQOL (adj R2 = 0.063, p = .014), depressive symptoms from the CES-D (adj R2 = 0.088, p = .003), and fat mass from the DXA scan (adj R2 = 0.054, p = .027). Regressions were not significant for stress or cortisol. CoDA revealed that a 20-min increase in MVPA and sleep at the expense of LPA and sedentary time was significantly associated with reduced psychological symptoms during menopause (MSQOL psychological domain), depressive symptoms, (CES-D), and fat mass, with 95% CI. CONCLUSION: Reducing sedentary time and LPA, and reallocating time toward sleep and MVPA by 20 minutes a day likely improves psychological health, depressive symptoms, and body composition. CoDA highlights a unique statistical approach and provides an evidence-based rationale for future PA interventions for targeted symptom improvement.