The Well-being of Women in the Post-menopausal Years

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the well-being of post-menopausal women and to determine whether certain factors may have a positive, negative or neutral influence on well-being in this sector of the population.Design: a survey of public attitude.Setting: the general post-menopausal population of Canada.Participants: twenty-eight physicians and two nurse directors of health clinics in various parts of Canada agreed to give the questionnaire to interested post-menopausal patients. A total of 2,000 stamped, self-addressed surveys were sent to these physicians and nurses with the request to distribute the questionnaires, between July 1994 and March 1995. Four hundred and thirty-four individuals subsequently returned a completed questionnaire.Main outcome measures: the subjective well-being (SWB) of post-menopausal women was assessed. Family history, medical history, therapeutic interventions economic status, social factors and philosophical perspectives were explored and analysed and related to well-being. Comments and demographic data were also solicited.Results: most post-menopausal women reported a high level of subjective well-being with 61.7 percent stating that they are happy and satisfied. Forty-six percent stated that their lives were close to their ideal and just over half (52%) reported feeling as happy as they were at a younger age. Various social economic, philosophical and medical factors appeared to influence SWB in this population, with logistic regression analysis indicating that the three most important factors were the degree of loneliness, the amount of stress and any difficult financial circumstances. Of the 47.7 Percent of respondents who had used or were using hormone replacement therapy (HRT), 84.3 Percent reported some or marked improvement in SWB following therapy. While the preferred source of information on menopausal issues was health care workers 49.7 Percent of respondents were not satisfied with the teaching on this topic received from their personal physicians.Conclusions: although most Canadian women report being content in the post-menopausal stage of life well-being appears to be associated with both medical and social events, with demographic factors and philosophical outlook. Social and familial factors are of at least as much importance to overall well-being as is actual physical health. Given the lack of satisfaction with the scope of teaching on menopausal issues, it is important that health care delivery to this population moves beyond symptomatology to addressing questions related to physical and social well-being.