Effect of aerobic training on hot flushes and quality of life--a randomized controlled trial.

Background And Objective: To estimate whether aerobic training has an effect on frequency of hot flushes or quality of life.

Design: A randomized controlled trial.

Participants And Setting: Symptomatic, sedentary women (n = 176), 43-63 years, no current use of hormone therapy.

Intervention: Unsupervised aerobic training for 50 minutes four times per week during 6 months.

Outcomes: Hot flushes as measured with Women's Health Questionnaire (WHQ) and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL, SF-36), daily reported hot flushes on phone-based diary, cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), and body composition.

Results: Intervention group had larger decrease in the frequency of night-time hot flushes based on phone diary (P for month × group = 0.012), but not on WHQ scale. Intervention group had less depressed mood (P = 0.01) than control women according to change in WHQ score. Changes in WHQ score in depressed mood (P = 0.03) and menstrual symptoms (P = 0.01) in the intervention group were significantly dependent on frequency of training sessions. HRQoL was improved among the intervention group women in physical functioning (P = 0.049) and physical role limitation (P = 0.017). CRF improved (P = 0.008), and lean muscle mass increased (P = 0.046) significantly in the intervention group as compared to controls.

Conclusions: Aerobic training may decrease the frequency of hot flushes and improve quality of life among slightly overweight women.