Menopausal symptoms in rural middle aged women: a community based cross sectional study

Najma Akhtar; Rajiv K. Gupta; Kiran Bala; Vijay Mengi; Chandni Gupta

doi:10.18203/2320-1770.ijrcog20183776

Authors

Najma Akhtar Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Rajiv K. Gupta Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Kiran Bala Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Vijay Mengi Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Chandni Gupta Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2320-1770.ijrcog20183776

Keywords:

Greene Climacteric Scale, Menopause, Rural women

Abstract

Background: Menopause poses a big challenge to the healthy aging of a woman. With growing emphasis on universal health coverage and improving quality of life, it is the need of hour to address the issues population of postmenopausal women to enhance our understanding of women’s experiences during menopause.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using non-probability purposive sampling and house-to-house visit in randomly selected villages falling under rural Health Block Kot-Bhalwal. 245 postmenopausal women were interviewed in accordance with pretested questionnaire consisting of Sociodemographic data and Greene Climacteric Scale.

Results: Muscle and joint pains was the most common complaint (89.0%), followed by feeling tired or lacking in energy (87.4%), difficulty in sleeping (82.5%) and difficulty in concentrating (80.4%). Nearly three-fourth of the study participants reported to be suffering from Irritability (77.6%), feeling tense/nervous (77.5%), Headaches (76.7%), loss of interest in most things (75.9%), feeling unhappy or depressed (74.29%), sweating at night (73.47%), attacks of anxiety, panic (73.5%), pressure or tightness in head (72.6%), and feeling dizzy or faint (71.8%).

Conclusions: A higher prevalence of menopausal symptoms was found. However, more research studies are needed to determine rural urban differences in prevalence and severity of the symptoms using a standardized tool on a larger sample in the community setting.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Subrahmanyam N, Padmaja A. Menopause Related Problems among Women in a Rural Community of Kerala. Int J Innovative Res Dev.2016;5(1):60-4

Panay N. Menopause and the postmenopausal women. In: Edmonds DK, editor. Dewhurts' textbook of obstetrics and gynecology. 7th ed. 2007. London.

Govt. of India. Census 2011. Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner India, Ministry of Home Affairs. New Delhi; 2012. Available at: http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-series/c-13/DDW-0000C-13.xls (Last assessed on 25 Sept. 2016)

Puri S, Bhatia V, Mangat C. Perceptions of menopause and postmenopausal bleeding in women of Chandigarh, India. Internet J Fam Pract. 2007;6(2):1-6.

Avin Alva BR, Chethan TK. A study to assess the average age of menopause and menopause associated symptoms among rural women in Mangalore, Karnataka. Ntl J Community Med. 2016;7(5):404-8.

Vijayalakshmi S, Ramesh C, Eilean VL. Menopausal transition among northern Indian women. Nitte Univ J Health Sci. 2013;3(2):73-9.

Shaw RW, Patrick W, Stanton SL. Gynaecology. 2nd edition. Churchill Livingstone. 1997.373-83.

World Health Organization. Research on the menopause in the 1990s: Report of a WHO Scientific Group. World Health Organ Tech Rep Ser Geneva. 1996;866:1-107.

Shifren JL, Schiff I. Menopause. In: Berek JS (ed.). Berek and Novak's Gynecology. 15th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. 2012:1233-49.

Avis NE, McKinlay SM. A longitudinal analysis of women's attitudes toward the menopause: results from the Massachusetts Women's Health Study. Maturitas. 1991 Mar 1;13(1):65-79.

Huffman SB, Myers JE, Tingle LR, Bond LA. Menopause symptoms and attitudes of African-American women: closing the knowledge gap and expanding opportunities for counselor. J Counselling Dev. 2005;83(1):48-56.

Thomas SE. Menopause knowledge and attitudes of English-speaking Caribbean women: Implications for health education. Californian J Health Promotion. 2005;3(3):167-76.

Nosek M, Kennedy H, Lee K. The effects of perceived stress and attitudes toward menopause and aging on symptoms of menopause. J Midwifery Women’s Health. 2010;55(4):328-34.

Tsehay DS, Mulatie MM, Sellakumar GK. Determinants of menopausal symptoms and attitude among middle aged women: the case of Dangila Town, North West Ethiopia. Innovare J Social Sci. 2014:2(1);15-20.

Huffman SB, Myers JE. Counseling women in midlife: an integrative approach to menopause. J Counseling Develop. 1999 Jul;77(3):258-66.

Theisen SC, Mansfield PK, Seery BL, Voda A. Predictors of midlife women’s attitudes towards menopause. Health Values. 1995;19(3):22-31.

Vasconcelos-Raposo J, Coelhoa E, Fernandes HM, Rodrigues C, Moreiraa H, Teixeira C. Factor structure and normative data of the Greene Climacteric Scale among postmenopausal Portuguese women Maturitas. 2012;72:256-62.

Govil D. Health needs of middle aged population: an unaddressed link. Paper presented at: European population conference; poster session 2. 2010 Sep 1-4; Vienna, Austria.

Sharma S, Tandon VR, Mahajan A. Menopausal symptoms in urban women. Alcohol. 2007;4:3-41.

Pathak RK, Parashar P. Age at menopause and associated bio-social factors of health in Punjabi women. Open Anthropol J. 2010;3:172-80.

Chuni N, Sreeramareddy CT. Frequency of symptoms, determinants of severe symptoms, validity of and cut-off score for Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) as a screening tool: a cross-sectional survey among midlife Nepalese women. BMC Women’s Health. 2011;11:30-8.

Nayak G, Kamath A, Kumar P, Rao A. A study of quality of life among perimenopausal women in selected coastal areas of Karnataka, India. J Midlife Health. 2012;3(2):71-5.

Christian D, Kathad M, Bhavsar B. Sociodemographic characteristics of post-menopausal women of rural area of Vadodara district, Gujarat. Nat J Comm Med. 2011;2(3):419-22.

Madhukumar S, Gaikwad V, Sudeepa D. A community-based study on perceptions about menopausal symptoms and quality of life of post menopausal women in Bangalore rural. Inter J Health Sci Res. 2012;2(3):49-56.

Bagga A. Age and symptomatology of menopause, A case study. Obstet and Gynecol Today. 2004;11(10): 660-6.

Mahajan N, Aggarwal M, Bagga A. Health issues of menopausal women in North India. J Mid-life Health. 2012 Jul;3(2):84-7.

Sarkar A, Pithadia P, Goswami K, Bhavsar S, Makwana NR, Yadav S et al. A study on health profile of post-menopausal women in Jamnagar district, Gujarat. J Res Med Den Sci. 2014;2(2):25-9.

Sharma S, Mahajan N. Menopausal symptoms and its effect on quality of life in urban versus rural women: a cross-sectional study. J Mid-life Health. 2015 Jan;6(1):16-20.

Satpathy MA. Study on age at menopause, menopausal symptoms and problems among urban women from Western Odisha, India. Int J Sci Res Publications. 2016 March;6(3):422-7.

Borker SA, Venugopalan PP, Bhat SN. Study of menopausal symptoms and perceptions about menopause among women at a rural community in Kerala. J Midlife Health. 2013 Jul;4(3):182-7.

Lal N. Premature menopause risks rising: study. India Together 2014 (January 1), Oorvani Media Pvt. Ltd. 2007

Rahman S, Salehin F, Iqbal A. Menopausal symptoms assessment among middle age women in Kushtia, Bangladesh. BMC Res Notes. 2011 Dec;4(1):188.

Adhi M, Hasan R, Shoaib S, Tauheed S. Age and symptomatology of menopause in Karachi, Pakistan. Pak J Physiol. 2007;3(1):41-4.

Sagdeo MM, Arora D. Menopausal symptoms: a comparative study in rural and urban women. JK Sci. 2011;13(1):23-7.

Chattha R, Kulkarni R, Nagarathna R, Nagendra HR. Factor analysis of Greene's Climacteric Scale for Indian women. Maturitas. 2008 Jan 20;59(1):22-7.

Christian D, Kathad MM, Bhavsar BS. A clinico-epidemiological study on health problems of post-menopausal women in rural area of Vadodara district, Gujarat. Natl J of Med Res. 2012;2(4):478-80.

Li L, Wu J, Pu D, Zhao Y, Wan C, Sun L et al. Factors associated with the age of natural menopause and menopausal symptoms in Chinese women. Maturitas. 2012;73(4):354-60.

Joshi M, Nair S. Epidemiological study to assess the menopausal problems during menopausal transition in middle age women of Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Indian J Obstet Gynaecol Res. 2015;2(3):163-8.