Health Promoting Lifestyle Behaviors and Sleep Quality among Post-Menopausal Women in Pakistan

Background: One of the most important concerns regarding improving women health is to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors. Adoption of such behaviors can increase the quality of life as well as delay development of co-morbidities due to menopause. Aim: The aim of the study was to assess health promoting behaviors and sleep quality among post-menopausal in Pakistan. Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. Study respondents included postmenopausal women visiting gynecologic clinic of healthcare facilities located in twin cities of Pakistan. Sample size was calculated to be 382 patients to achieve 95% confidence level with 5% margin of error. Two pre-validated structured questionnaires were used for collection of data in this study i.e., Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLPII) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis (p ≥ 0.05) tests were applied according to different demographic variables. Results: The results highlighted that among all the HPLP domains, highest mean score was observed for interpersonal relations (13.53 ± 4.65) followed by nutrition (13.16 ± 4.84) and spiritual growth (11.20 ± 4.43), whereas the lowest score was observed for physical activity (5.57 ± 4.10). The results highlighted that highest scores for PSQI were observed in the domain of sleep disturbances (1.43 ±.588) followed by domain of sleep latency (1.34 ±1.18) and subjective sleep quality (1.07 ±.739). Whereas lowest scores were observed in the domain of habitual sleep efficiency (0.25 ±.464) which indicates better sleep quality in this domain. Conclusion: The result of the present study concluded poor health promoting lifestyle behavior and poor sleep quality among post-menopausal women in Pakistan. There is a need of designing awareness programs and sessions for women in order to provide counseling to women regarding the effects of menopause on body and importance of adopting a physical and healthy lifestyle by healthcare professionals.