{"doi":"10.1016/j.exger.2025.112764","title":"Pulmonary VO2 on-kinetics and walking net VO2 associate with fatigue and mood disturbance in postmenopausal women","abstract":"Postmenopausal women often experience fatigue and mood disturbance both of which interfere with quality-of-life. Since greater physical function aids psychosocial well-being, we hypothesized the acute cardiopulmonary responses during walking may reveal important factors linked to fatigue and mood disturbance. In this cross-sectional study, women of similar body mass index (BMI) aged 55-75 y were dichotomized to mid-life (55-65 y; 83.4 ± 8.4 kg/m 2 ; n = 14) or older (≥65 y; 81.8 ± 10.4 kg/m 2 ; n = 11) groups. A 6-minute walk test was used to estimate peak aerobic capacity (V̇O 2peak ). A treadmill task coupled with indirect calorimetry measured mean response time (MRT) – representing the duration to reach 63 % of steady-state net oxygen uptake (V̇O 2 ). Average daily fatigue and fatigue interference were measured with the Fatigue Symptom Inventory. General mood disturbance was measured with the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire. Age-group differences were not detected in fatigue ratings, MRT, or walking net V̇O 2 . However, older women had lower aerobic capacity ( p = 0.002, ES = 1.39) and greater disturbance in the POMS Depression-Dejection subscale ( p = 0.042, ES = 0.41). Among all participants, and independent of V̇O 2peak , MRT correlated with average daily fatigue ( r = 0.500, p = 0.015), fatigue interference ( r = 0.421, p = 0.046), and POMS total mood disturbance ( r s = 0.437, p = 0.037). Regression modeling revealed MRT and walking net V̇O 2 jointly explained 55 % ( R = 0.744, p < 0.001) of the variance in average daily fatigue. In conclusion, MRT and walking net V̇O 2 may serve as important points of intervention to alleviate fatigue and mood disturbance in postmenopausal women. • In postmenopausal women, V̇O 2 on-kinetics correlate with fatigue and mood disturbance – independent of V̇O 2peak . • Regression modeling showed mean response time and net V̇O 2 jointly account for 55 % of the variance in average daily fatigue. • Mean response time and net V̇O 2 may be important to alleviate fatigue and mood disturbance in postmenopausal women.","journal":"Experimental Gerontology","year":2025,"id":543911,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9499,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1265074,"name":"Tyler H. Blechschmid","orcid":"0000-0003-2119-1048","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":968539,"name":"Emily B. Long","orcid":"0000-0002-7317-7398","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":841054,"name":"Tenzin Yangchen","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369146,"name":"Marissa N. Baranauskas","orcid":"0000-0002-5585-6995","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":322917,"name":"Chad C. Wiggins","orcid":"0000-0002-6458-0142","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369145,"name":"John S. Raglin","orcid":"0000-0002-5298-9514","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369147,"name":"Andrew R. Coggan","orcid":"0000-0002-7723-8872","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":369143,"name":"Stephen J. Carter","orcid":"0000-0001-5625-0883","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":38,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:53:08.338070Z","pmid":"40287000","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}