Influence of physical activity level and perceived social support on mental health and psychological distress in women with menopause problems

ABSTRACT

Perceived Social Support (PSS) and Physical Activity (PA) could have an important role in reducing psychological distress in women with problems in the menopausal period. The aim was to analyze the associations between a) Self-Perceived Health (SPH), prevalence of self-reported depression and anxiety, and mental health and its subscales, through the Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) with b) the Physical Activity Level (PAL) and c) the PSS, through the Duke-UNC-11 functional social support questionnaire in Spanish women with problems in the menopausal period. This document uses data from the Spanish National Health Survey of 2017, focusing on women between 40 and 69 years of age with problems in the menopausal period. Dependency relationships were found between the prevalence of depression and PAL, anxiety and PAL, and SPH with PAL (p < 0.001). Weak inverse correlations were found between PAL and mental health, Coping Success, Self-confidence, and Stress (rho: − 0.214 to − 0.258; p < 0.001). Also, weak and very weak significant inverse correlations were found between PAL and all items of the GHQ-12. Weak inverse correlations were found between PSS scores and mental health, Coping, and Stress (r: −0.201 to − 0.304; p < 0.001). Likewise, weak and very weak inverse correlations, although statistically significant, were found between the PSS scores and the responses to the GHQ-12 items. Very active women with higher PSS have less psychological distress, higher self-esteem, and better prevalence of positive health.

KEYWORDS:

• Depression
• health survey
• mental illness
• self perceived health
• stress
• psychology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2024.2347522

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author A.D.-Z. (FPU20/04201) was supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, Grants FPU20/04201, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and, as appropriate, by “European Social Fund Investing in your future” or by “European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR”. The author D.P.-P. was supported by a grant from “Plan Propio de Iniciación a la Investigación, Desarrollo Tecnológico e Innovación de la Universidad de Extremadura”. The author R.P.-C. was supported by a grant from the Valhondo Calaff Foundation (Cáceres, Spain).