The Relationship Between Earlier Onset of Natural Menopause and Elevated Urinary Albumin-Creatinine Ratio in Postmenopausal Chinese Women

Abstract

Purpose

There is a close correlation between menopausal age and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Some research suggests that this risk is attributable to an elevated urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR), but further work is needed to explore the link between UACR and age at time of menopause.

Patients and Methods

Data analyzed in the present study were derived from seven regional centers participating in the REACTION study. A total of 21,672 postmenopausal women met with our study inclusion and exclusion criteria, and were split into three groups based upon their age at onset of natural menopause. A UACR ≥ 30 mg/g was the primary outcome measure for this study. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated with a logistic regression approach.

Results

Relative to women who were 46–50 years old at time of natural menopause, those with an earlier onset of menopause (≤45 years) exhibited an increased risk of UACR elevation following adjustment for confounding variables (OR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.04–1.33), whereas the opposite was true for women with a later age of menopause onset (>50 years) (OR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.78–0.94). For every 1-year delay in the onset of menopause, UACR risk fell by 3% (OR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.96–0.98).

Conclusion

In summary, early menopause (≤45 years old) was linked to a higher risk of UACR elevation in postmenopausal women. However, further work will be needed to understand the mechanistic basis for these findings.

Keywords:

• age
• urinary albumin-creatinine ratio
• menopause

Acknowledgments

This work is part of the REACTION study. The authors would like to thank all the reviewers who participated in the review and MJEditor for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Data Sharing Statement

All data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The study is supported by the Chinese Society of Endocrinology, the Key Laboratory for Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases of Ministry of Health (1994DP131044), the National Key New Drug Creation and Manufacturing Program of Ministry of Science and Technology (2012ZX09303006-001), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program, 2011AA020107), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81300717), and the National Science and Technology Major Project 288 (2011ZX09307-001-8).