The Relationship Between Earlier Onset of Natural Menopause and Elevated Urinary Albumin-Creatinine Ratio in Postmenopausal Chinese Women

Mingyan Yao; Hongzhou Liu; Bing Li; Yang Liu; Yiming Mu

doi:10.2147/DMSO.S292041

The Relationship Between Earlier Onset of Natural Menopause and Elevated Urinary Albumin-Creatinine Ratio in Postmenopausal Chinese Women

Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2021 Feb 25:14:847-856. doi: 10.2147/DMSO.S292041. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Mingyan Yao^#^{1

2}, Hongzhou Liu^#¹, Bing Li¹, Yang Liu¹, Yiming Mu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Endocrinology, Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Endocrinology, Baoding NO.1 Central Hospital, Baoding, 071000, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: There is a close correlation between menopausal age and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Some research suggests that this risk is attributable to an elevated urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR), but further work is needed to explore the link between UACR and age at time of menopause.

Patients and methods: Data analyzed in the present study were derived from seven regional centers participating in the REACTION study. A total of 21,672 postmenopausal women met with our study inclusion and exclusion criteria, and were split into three groups based upon their age at onset of natural menopause. A UACR ≥ 30 mg/g was the primary outcome measure for this study. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated with a logistic regression approach.

Results: Relative to women who were 46-50 years old at time of natural menopause, those with an earlier onset of menopause (≤45 years) exhibited an increased risk of UACR elevation following adjustment for confounding variables (OR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.04-1.33), whereas the opposite was true for women with a later age of menopause onset (>50 years) (OR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.78-0.94). For every 1-year delay in the onset of menopause, UACR risk fell by 3% (OR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.96-0.98).

Conclusion: In summary, early menopause (≤45 years old) was linked to a higher risk of UACR elevation in postmenopausal women. However, further work will be needed to understand the mechanistic basis for these findings.

Keywords: age; menopause; urinary albumin-creatinine ratio.

Grants and funding

The study is supported by the Chinese Society of Endocrinology, the Key Laboratory for Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases of Ministry of Health (1994DP131044), the National Key New Drug Creation and Manufacturing Program of Ministry of Science and Technology (2012ZX09303006-001), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program, 2011AA020107), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81300717), and the National Science and Technology Major Project 288 (2011ZX09307-001-8).