ABSTRACT
Menopausal transition, in which biological and psychosocial changes are caused due to estrogen fluctuations, has been reported to increase cardiovascular risk among midlife women. The purposes of this study were to identify the clusters of midlife women by cardiovascular symptoms and to examine racial/ethnic differences in the clusters. This was a secondary analysis, in which hierarchical cluster and multinomial logistic analyses were conducted with the data (N = 966) collected in two previous studies. Three clusters were adopted: Cluster 1 (high vasomotor and low cardiorespiratory), Cluster 2 (low vasomotor and high cardiorespiratory and high discomfort/pain), and Cluster 3 (high discomfort/pain and high indigestion).
Funding
This is a secondary analysis of the quantitative data from two lager studies that were funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NINR/NIA, 1R01NR008926 and NIH/NINR/ NHLBI, R01NR010568).