Introduction
Midlife is the period between younger and older adulthood that is described as a period of transition in women’s lives. Most women experience various health problems after the age of 45. At this age, women suffer from social, psychological & biological challenges, which mostly are the symptoms of the menopause.
Menopause is the end of menstruation. Menopause is cessation of menstruation for 12 months or a period equivalent to three previous cycles.1 Menopause is a part of a women’s natural ageing process when her ovaries produce lower level of the estrogen & progesterone.
In India menopause starts about age of 47 year where in western country it is 51 year.2
Quality of life (QOL) has been defined by the WHO as “the individual perception of their position in life in the context of the cultural and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectation, standards and concerns.3
A study done in rural Bengaluru showed that physical & psychosocial symptoms were reported 56.92% of the menopausal women felt firmly that menopause affects those women in negative manner.4
Nowadays, it is very nicely understandable that socio cultural factors can alter women’s attitude and that can change the experience of menopausal symptoms. These symptoms are found to be less common in societies nowadays and where the menopause is viewed as positive rather than negative event.5
Materials and Methods
Design
The methodology enables the researcher to project a blue print of details about the approach, data collection,analysis and findings of the research taken. In this study, Quantitative approach was used to find out the prevalence of menopausal symptoms and association between socio demographic and impact of menopausal symptoms on quality of life of the menopausal women. Community based descriptive cross-sectional research design was used.
The inclusion criteria included Women within the age group of 45-50 years, women who had stopped menstruation at least from 6-12 months ,women who had given the consent. Participant with history of induced menopause, hysterectomy, receiving any kind of hormonal therapy, medical condition such as, hypertension, cardiac disease and thyroid disorders previously were excluded.
Sample size
Sample size was estimated taking prevalence of menopausal symptoms of 61.3% of any symptoms with relative precision of 5% at 95% confidence internal. Calculated sample size is 383. Total 400 menopausal women were chosen from the selected urban community, Kolkata, West Bengal, India, as study sample through purposive sampling technique.
Data collection and measurement
Data were collected from study sample by structured interview method. Menopause Specific Quality of Life scale was used to assess the prevalence of menopausal symptoms and its impact on quality of life.
Socio demographic variables were age, education, occupation, socioeconomic status, marital status, number of children.
Data collection
The present study was conducted in a selected urban community, Kolkata, West Bengal. Before the formal survey, pilot study was done with a sample of 40 participants ; their answers were not included in data analysis. In the month of July, 2020, potential participants who met the inclusion criteria were recruited to collect data. They were asked to complete the survey through the structured interview method. Interview completion lasted 10-15 minutes.
Data analysis
Data from the survey were analyzed using the descriptive and analytical statistics. Descriptive statistics included the mean,and range values for continuous data; percentages and frequency tables for categorical data were also used. According the scores of MENQOL scale data was analyzed to assess the prevalence of menopausal symptoms and its impact using frequency and percentage table, mean .Inferential statistics included Chi square test to find the association of socio demographic variables with menopausal symptoms.
Results
In terms of socio demographic characteristics participants are categorized in age group 45-46,47-48,49-50; educational status primary school, high school, higher secondary, graduate; occupational status govt.employee, private employee, home maker; socioeconomic status upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, upper lower class, lower class; marital status married, unmarried, widow; and number of children one two more than two.(Table 1)
Table 1
Frequency and percentage distribution of study sample according to socio demographic characteristics N=400
Table 2
Frequency and percentage distribution of study sample according to various menopausal symptoms N=400
Table 3
Distribution of impact of various menopausal symptoms on quality of life,frequency and percentage N=400
Table 4
Association of socio demographic variables with menopausal symptoms
Discussion
The current study contributes to the literature on prevalence of menopausal symptoms and its impact on quality of life. The present study findings of prevalence of menopausal symptoms are similar with a previous community based cross sectional study done during August to September 2018 among menopausal women residing in two urban wards of Siliguri municipal corporation (SMC) area to assess the Quality of life among menopausal women in an urban area of Siliguri. 6
In the present study findings prevalence of vasomotor symptoms are higher than a previously conducted community based study among 100 peri and postmenopausal women (40–60 years) in Dearah village of West Bengal to assess the quality of life among menopausal women. 7
The impact of menopausal symptoms on quality of life in the present study shows that vasomotor symptoms had mild moderate and severe impact but physical psychological and sexual symptoms only had mild and moderate impact on quality of life. The findings are similar
These findings were similar with a previous descriptive study was carried out in Obstetrics and Gynecological department at maternity and children hospital in Makkah Saudi Arab. Convenient sample composed of 90 women at range of from 40-60 years were recruited in the study. 8
Age of the study sample had association with vasomotor and psychological symptoms where educational status had association with all menopausal symptoms; occupational status had association with vasomotor physical and sexual symptoms; socioeconomic status of study sample had association with vasomotor psychological and physical symptoms and number of children of women had association with only psychological symptoms.
These findings of the study is similar with previous cross sectional study was conducted in 2019 in rural field to assess the Quality of life among post - menopausal women in rural area Puducherry. Totally 133 willing women who gave consent were interviewed. The mean age was 51± 2 years ranges from 45- 68 years.9
Implication of the study
The findings of the study have several implications for nursing education, nursing practice, nursing research and nursing administration. The implications which have made in the present study are of vital concern to the professional nurse practitioners, nursing instructors, nursing administration and nursing researcher. As the first and major step in the nursing process is assessment which involves collection, organization and analysis of information related to health. This study will help nurses, students, in assessment of the impact of various menopausal symptoms in menopausal women. This study will help to know about the various symptoms of menopause reported by menopausal women. Nursing research is an essential component of today’s nursing education. The research is the only possible method to generate evidence for nursing care. A similar study can be conducted on a large sample for generalization. A similar research study can be conducted in rural area to know the occurence of menopausal symptoms in rural women.
Conclusion
The results support the popular belief that menopause causes vasomotor, physical and psychological problems. From the findings of the present study it can be concluded that almost all areas or domains evaluated were impaired in menopausal women but the vasomotor and psychological symptoms affects women’s quality of life more than the physical and sexual symptoms of menopause. A large number of women all over the world suffer from menopausal symptoms, and the problem cannot thus be ignored. Education, creating awareness and providing suitable intervention to improve the QOL are important social and medical issues which need to be addressed.
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