Quality of life of women in climacteric transition in Delta State
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Date
2015
Authors
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Publisher
Obafemi Awolowo University
Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the age range of Delta State women at the onset of menopause, identify the specific symptoms experienced by the women during the menopause transition, assess the quality of life of the women in climacteric phase; and examines the relationship between selected demographic variables (age, income and educational level) and the women’s quality of life (QoL) with a view to provide information on improving the QoL of midlife women.
A mixed method descriptive design was adopted. Using a multistage sampling technique, 405 subjects were selected to participate in the study. Sample units were selected from six (6) local government areas of Delta State for the quantitative study. While twelve (12) midlife women (2 from each local government area) were purposively selected for the qualitative aspect of the study. Inclusion criteria include midlife women within the age range of 45 to 60 years who are heterosexual and have been menstruating actively prior to eventual gradual cessation of menses. Three validated instruments were used for data collection. They are (i) Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQoL) that was used to assess menopausal symptoms of the subjects within four domains which are: vasomotor, psychosocial, physical and sexual. (ii) Utian Quality of Life (UQoL) questionnaire used to measure the degree of quality of life concerns of the subjects were used to collect quantitative data. And (iii) In-depth interview guide for assessing menopausal experiences and their effect on QoL to collect qualitative data. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics while qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis and triangulation methods.
Results reveal that the age range reported by subjects for onset of menopause was 40 – 60 years with mean 50.25±4.8. The most prevalent identified symptoms of menopause experienced by the
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respondents; (i) Vasomotor symptoms were - profuse sweating during the day (67.9%), sweating at night (66.9%) and hot flushes (62.2%). (ii) Psychosocial symptoms - accomplishing less work than they used to do before (67.7%), poor memory (57 %) and feeling of being anxious or nervous (52.6%). (iii) Physical symptoms were - decrease in stamina (75.1%), difficulty in sleeping (65.7%), weight gain (60.5%), and aching in the muscle and joint (59.5%). Sexual symptoms were - changes in their sexual desire (71.6%), dryness in vaginal during intercourse (66.9%) and trying to avoid intimacy (53.8%). Subjects had good QoL in the occupational (84.2 ± 3.86), emotional (83.9 ± 4.88) and health (75.0 ± 6.07) domains while they had fair QoL in the sexual domain (66.3 ± 9.54). Multiple regression test shows that there is significant relationship between the highest level of education attained (p= 0.001, β =0.271) with the women’s overall QoL. The regression also reveals that there is significant association between the symptoms of sexual domain (p= 0.045, β =0.115) with the women’s overall QoL.
This study concluded that even with the moderate problems the women experienced, they did not necessarily find the symptoms bothersome as their QoL was generally good. The highest level of education attained and symptoms of sexual domain had strong relationship with the respondents overall QoL.
Supervisor: Dr. (Mrs.) Adenike A.E. Olaogun
Number of pages: 93.
Description
xii,93p
Keywords
Utian quality of life, Menopause, Midlife women, Menopause-specific quality of life, Climacteric transition, Women, Climacteric transition, Climacteric phase
Citation
Oyibocha, E.O.(2015).Quality of life of women in climacteric transition in Delta State