Data on the association between age at natural menopause and physical function in older women from the International Mobility in Aging Study (IMIAS)

Women experience worse physical function and greater physical decline than men at similar ages. These sex differences are heterogeneous across settings and plausibly linked to gender inequality, with evidence of increasing disadvantage for women in increasingly iniquitous societies. As described in “Age at natural menopause and physical function in older women from Albania, Brazil, Colombia and Canada: A life-course perspective” [Velez et al., 2019] we assessed the association between age at natural menopause (ANM) and objectives markers of physical function (i.e., gait speed and grip strength) in older women from the International Mobility in Aging Study (IMIAS). For all sites combined, women with ANM ≥55 had higher gait speed than those with ANM 50–54. Women with ANM