Assessment of Menopause Specific Quality of Life and its Predictors Among Post-menopausal Women in a Rural Area of Jammu: A Community Based Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Menopause is a natural phenomenon in a woman’s life and is accompanied by physical and mental changes which have lot of bearing on their Quality of life (QOL).
Objective: To assess menopause specific Quality of life and its predictors among rural postmenopausal women in Jammu region of UT of J&K, India.
Methodology: This community based cross- sectional study was conducted among 250 rural postmenopausal women who had attained natural menopause. Data was analyzed using PSPP software. Test of significance used were student’s t test and ANOVA. Multiple linear regressions were used to predict the most significant variables for QOL.
Results: The mean score for overall QOL was 55.53 with highest score for physical domain (33.5) and lowest for sexual domain (3.44). On bivariate analysis, age, educational status, physical activity, contraceptive use & duration since menopause were significantly associated with different domains of QOL (p<0.05). But on multivariate analysis, only history of contraceptive use and duration of menopause emerged to be significant predictors for composite scores of QOL.
Conclusion: There is a significant impact of menopausal symptoms on QOL of women which emphasizes the need to create awareness among menopausal women regarding the importance of physical activity, access to treatment when indicated and social interactions to decrease negative feelings and to improve overall QOL.