The effects of hormone replacement therapy, lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and other factors on a clock drawing task in older women.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the associations of a clock drawing task with hormone replacement therapy and other factors in older women.

DESIGN

Group comparisons.

SETTING

Leisure World Laguna Hills, retirement community in southern California.

PARTICIPANTS

Two hundred ninety-two postmenopausal women who were analyzed for lipoprotein levels in 1987-88 were contacted by postal survey, which included a clock drawing task, in 1992; 168 women who drew normal clocks were compared with 46 who drew abnormal or blank clocks.

MEASUREMENTS: Clock drawings; lipoprotein cholesterol levels; serum progesterone, estrone, estradiol, and steroid hormone binding globin levels; self-reported data on smoking, alcohol intake, prior medical diagnoses, and use of certain medications including hormone replacement therapy and analgesics.

RESULTS

Women with normal clocks had significantly lower total cholesterol (P = .01), LDL cholesterol (P = .03), and serum progesterone levels (P = .03). They weighed, on average, 5 more pounds at the time of last menstrual period (P = .05), were more likely to use combined hormonal replacement therapy (P = .06), and were less likely to use acetaminophen daily (P = .02) than women with abnormal clocks. Serum estrone and estradiol levels did not differ significantly between women with normal and abnormal clocks.

CONCLUSION

The associations found here suggest that high serum cholesterol and progesterone levels might have a negative effect on clock drawing performance. Acetaminophen may also be related to worse performance on this task.