The Association Between Lifestyle and Abdominal Obesity Among Postmenopausal Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

This study examined the association between sedentary behavior, sleep duration, breakfast skipping, and abdominal obesity among postmenopausal women in South Korea. A total of 7,270 postmenopausal women were included in this cross-sectional, secondary analysis study, using a nationally representative dataset from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Sleep duration of fewer than 5 hours/day was associated with an increased risk of abdominal obesity (odds ratio [OR] = 1.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], [1.02-1.63]), compared to sleep duration of 6-8 hours/day after controlling for covariates. Additionally, breakfast skipping was associated with an increased risk of abdominal obesity (OR = 1.45; 95% CI [1.02-2.06]), compared to breakfast eating after covariate adjustment. There was no significant association between sedentary behavior and abdominal obesity. The findings of this study demonstrate that special consideration should be given to behavior modification strategies to improve sleep duration and decrease breakfast skipping to decrease the risk of abdominal obesity in postmenopausal women.