• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.713-725
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• 1999

Women have a greater incidence of coronary heart disease(CHD) after menopause. It relates to hormone imbalance-induced changes in known CHD risk factors, especially hyperlipidemia. Accordingly, once women are diagnosed, the rate of morbidity and mortality is greater than for men. Thus, preventive strategies are critical to improve the quality oflife in the later years for women. The purpose of ths study was to explore the difference of anthropometric, environmental factors and food behaviors between normocholesterolemia and hypercholesterolemia within postmenopausal women. The subjects were classified as normocholesterolemia and hypercholesterolemia based on the Guideline for Korean Hyperlipidemia. The results obtained are summarized as follows. The distributions of general characteristics such as age, family income, occupation status, age at menarche, and menopausal period were not significantly different between the normocholesterolemia group and hypercholesterolemia group. The anthropometric factors such as body mass index(BMI) and waist hip ratio(WHR) were not significantly different between the normocholesteroemia group and the hypercholesterolemia group but odds ratio of hypercholesterolemia group was higher than that of normocholesterolemia but not significant. Aerobic activity more than 1hours/day was significantly related to low serum cholesterol concentration. Eating behaviors related to regular meal time, regular breakfast habit, and slow meal speed were related to low serum cholesterol concentration. Eating the chicken without skin was significantly related to low serum cholesterol concentration. Our data indicate that desirable eating habit, aerobic activity more than 1hr/day are important factors of serum cholesterol concentrations in postmenopausal women. The result of this study provide information that is important in designing appropriate dietary guidelines for hypercholesterolemia in postmenopausal women.