The effect of 8 weeks of Pilates exercises on old menopausal women's psychological health

Aging is associated with menopause in women. The present study investigates the effect of Pilates exercises on some components of old menopausal women's psychological health.

Participants in this study were 86 postmenopausal women over 60 years (experimental group: N=43, control group: N=43) in Tehran. The present study was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design. The experimental group performed Pilates exercises for eight weeks, 3 sessions per week for 60 minutes, but the control group did not participate in any sports activities other than normal daily activities. The quality of sleep, depression, anxiety, and fatigue were assessed using the Pittsburgh Questionnaire Index (PSQI), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), respectively. ANCOVA analysis of covariance and related T was used to test the research hypotheses under normal conditions. All statistical analyzes were performed with SPSS version 26. A significant level (α ≤0 0.01) was considered.

The results of this study showed that 8 weeks of Pilates exercises has positive effect on Sleep disturbances (P ≤0 0.001), anxiety (P ≤0 0.001), depression (P ≤0 0.001), and fatigue (P ≤0 0.001) in postmenopausal women (P ≤0 0.05).

It seems that the use of Pilates exercises in postmenopausal women can lead to effective results on sleep quality, anxiety, depression, and fatigue and shows the importance of using these exercises in elderly and postmenopausal women. Therapists are also advised to use Pilates exercises in postmenopausal women.