A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Program on Symptoms of Menopause and It’s Management in Terms of Knowledge and Quality of Life among Menopausal Women in a Selected Community of Delhi

Abstract

The life cycle of a newborn undergoes many changes physically, emotionally as she enters womanhood starting from menarche, then marriage, motherhood and finally enters into menopause, which marks the end of reproductive capacity. Menopause is derived from the Latin words meno (month) and pausia (halt), and essentially marks the end of a woman’s period of natural fertility. Meno (menstruation) pause (stops) is, technically, the last menstrual flow of a woman’s life. The public healthcare system does not acknowledge the special health needs of older women. Keeping this in mind, a study was undertaken to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of Structured Teaching Program (STP) on symptoms of menopause and its management in terms of knowledge and quality of life among menopausal women. 50 menopausal women from a selected community of Delhi were selected using purposive sampling technique for the study in order to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching program. The tools developed and used for data collection were structured knowledge questionnaire and quality of life (MENQOL). The data obtained were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics in terms of frequency, percentage, mean, SD, ‘t’ value and coefficient correlation. The major findings of the study were: the mean posttest knowledge score of menopausal women was significantly higher than the pretest knowledge score with a mean difference of 11.2. The obtained mean difference was found to be statistically significant as evident from the ‘t’ value of (23.99) for df (49) at 0.05 level of significance. Thus the structured teaching program was found to be effective in enhancing the knowledge and quality of life among menopausal women regarding menopausal symptoms and its management.