THE IMPACT OF DIETARY INTERVENTION ON VASOMOTOR SYMPTOMS OF POST-MENOPAUSAL WOMEN

Background: Menopause is a significant event for women and in significant proportion it is accompanied by a wide range of symptoms, the most common of which are vasomotor symptoms generally bothersome, with a negative impact on women’s health and wellbeing Objectives: To assess the impact of dietary intervention program regarding vasomotor symptoms of post-menopausal women, and to find out if there is any association between intervention program and study variable. Subjects and methods: The study was a quasi-experimental study design that was applied on 50 postmenopausal women, with nine months duration, the study used dietary intervention program (which include Adoption of a Mediterranean-style diet) was adopted by participants, with a follow up period of three months, and by using The Menopause Rating Scale for assessment of menopausal symptoms, the impact of dietary program was measured before and after the intervention. Paired t-test and fisher exact test were used for inferential statistics P value <0.05 was considered significant Results: about half of the participants were between (53-57) of age, 88% of them married with 44% secondary school education, 92% were house wives and 52% had moderate socioeconomic status, there was a significant decrease of severity of vasomotor, physical, psychological, urogenital symptoms and total menopause rating scale after the intervention. Conclusions: The dietary intervention program has a positive impact on decreasing the severity of postmenopausal symptoms, this may offer new non- pharmacological option for management of post-menopausal symptoms when other options like hormonal therapy is contra indicated.