INTRODUCTION:
Increased abdominal visceral fat is associated with reduced levels of physical activity and generates in postmenopausal women the emergence of physical inactivity disease, characterized by a set of conditions including diabetes mellitus type 2 and, cardiovascular disease.. On the other hand regular physical activity appears to have significant impact in preventing both intra-abdominal fat and metabolic and cardiovascular complications.
OBJECTIVE:
To investigate the association between walking and physical activity of moderate intensity with the emergence of an area of intra-abdominal fat in postmenopausal women.
METHODS:
The sample consisted of 239 women with a mean age of 57.4±6.6 years participants in the "Menopausa em Forma" (fitness in menopause) program. For analysis of physical activity long-version IPAQ was used. The values of 1,601 kcal/week in walking and 2,283 kcal/week in physical activity of moderate intensity were considered sufficient to prevent excessive intra-abdominal fat. We used a logistic regression analysis to estimate the odds ratio (OR) with a confidence interval of 95%.
RESULTS:
Multivariate analysis revealed that the walk offered protection against excessive intra-abdominal fat, especially in women with regular menstrual periods, OR=0.22 (0.08-0.62) and and in those not receiving hormone replacement therapy, OR=0.05 (0.01-0.49). The level of moderate-intensity physical activity offered protection against intra-abdominal fat regardless of hormone replacement or regular periods, OR=0.37 (0.14-0.66).
CONCLUSION:
We conclude therefore that walking and especially the physical activity of moderate intensity may be important for prevention of excessive intra-abdominal fat and its metabolic and cardiovascular complications in postmenopausal women.
obesity; abdominal; exercise/physiology; motor activity/physiology; postmenopause