The Effect of Water-Based Regular Exercise on Blood Parameters in Women after Menopause

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to examine the effect of water-based regular exercise on some blood parameters in women after menopause.

Method: A total of 26 healthy and volunteer women in the postmenopausal period, whose average age was 56.38 +/- 5.53 years, whose average height was 1.57.62 +/- 4.86 cm, and whose average body weight was 77.81 +/- 11.66 kg, participated in the study. The participants who accepted to participate in the study were given water-based regular exercises for 8 weeks and asked to continue their normal life and normal eating habits. The water-based exercise protocol applied to the participants was carried out in the Olympic swimming pool within the scope of the standards applied by the Ministry of Health for the indoor swimming pool. Before embarking on the exercise protocol, the participants were referred to the healthcare facility for blood samples. Likewise, after eight weeks of water-based exercises, blood samples were determined again. Data were analysed with SPSS V23. The conformity to the normal distribution was evaluated using the Shapiro-Wilk test. Paired two-sample t-test for normally distributed variables and a Wilcoxon test for non-normally distributed variables were used to examine the changes in parameters according to the time before and after the study. Analysis results were presented as mean +/- standard deviation and median (minimummaximum) for quantitative data, and categorical variables were presented as frequency (n) and percentage (%). The significance level was taken as p<0.05. Results: At the end of the study, a statistically significant difference was found between the pre-andpost-study median values of AST values (p=0.004). Likewise, a statistically significant difference was found between the pre-andpost-study median values of ALT values (p=0.023). There was no statistically significant difference between the pre-and-poststudy distributions of other parameters (p>0.050).