Impact of dietary protein content on sleep and life quality of women in postmenopausal period

The period of women elapsing after menopause or from menopause to old age is called postmenopause. Numerous health problems (such as obesity and osteoporosis) arising in women depending on age and effecting life quality occur in this postmenopausal period. Dietary habits and content have an important role to decrease the occurrence of such health problems. In this study; it is aimed to determine the impact of dietary protein content on sleep and life quality of women in postmenopausal period. Demographic information, general health characteristics, sleep quality, eating habits, food consumption frequency and anthropometric measurement records of women are taken, and the relationship between dietary protein and sleep and life quality is examined in this study, in which 67 women (n=80) applying to two different private nutrition and diet centers who are in their postmenopause period, are included. Acquired data is analyzed with ANOVA, Scheffe test, T-test, correlation and chi-square analysis by using the SPSS 22.0 analysis program, and the relations between variables are examined. As a result of the statistical analysis of the acquired data; 28.4% of women are 50 years old or under, 31.3% of women are between 51-55, 40.3% of them are 55 years old and over. It was found out that 62.7% of women entered the menopause by natural means, 3.0% of them due to medications, 22.4% of them due to surgical reasons, and 11.9% of them entered into the menopause due to other reasons; 88.1% of them experienced difficulties because of menopause, and 11.9% of them didn't experience any difficulties due to menopause. It was seen that 40.3% of women experienced healthy sleep problem, 44.8% of them experienced poor sleep problem, and 14.9% of them experienced sleeping sickness for a long term. Statistical significance is not discovered between protein and amino acid types and age, physical activity, mother's menopausal age and anthropometric measurements. When dietary habits of women are examined, it was found out that rate of energy coming from protein, tryptophan, carbohydrate and fat to the total energy, and also sodium intake are high, and Vitamin D intake is low according to the daily intake reference values determined by the Turkey Dietary Guideline. However, these determined findings are irrelevant to the main purpose of the study. As a conclusion, significant differences and relations could not be found between dietary protein content and sleep quality of women in postmenopause period. Relations between the factors effecting life quality and the protein content are insignificant. At the end of the study, relations determined between variables are not statistically strong. This is because various factors are believed to be effective on life and sleep quality. In the light of all these acquired data, relation between dietary protein content and sleep and life quality of women in postmenopausal period must be worked on a larger and more homogeneous sample, and there is a need to conduct more studies on this issue in the future.