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Abstract
This study aims to answer the following questions: (i) what is the attitude of women
in the climacteric years towards menopause, (ii) what is the association between attitude
towards menopause and well-being and (iii) to what extent is medical attention determined
by both well-being and attitude towards menopause. All 2729 women aged 45–60 years
living in a suburb of Rotterdam were sent a questionnaire, of these 1947 (71.3%) were
returned. Attitude was measured on a 5-point rating scale using 28 items that have
been used in other studies. Well-being was measured by the Inventory of Subjective
Health and three subscales of the Sickness Impact Profile. Medical attention was measured
by asking the women whether they were currently being treated by a general practitioner
or specialist. Results show that three clusters of attitudes towards menopause exist:
two clusters encompass items reflecting attitudes towards disadvantages and advantages
of the menopause, one cluster encompasses items reflecting attitudes towards (medical)
treatment of the menopause. On the whole, women answer neutrally to items relating
menopause with the disadvantages and tend to agree with items relating menopause with
the advantages. The women slightly agree, premenopausal women more than others, with
items that are in favour of treatment of menopausal complaints. Agreement with items
on the disadvantage cluster is moderately associated with a low level of well-being,
whereas agreement with items on the advantage cluster is slightly associated with
a high level of well-being; the treatment cluster is not associated with well-being.
Both well-being and agreement with items on the treatment cluster are statistically
significantly associated with medical attention. Apart from these variables, the woman's
ideas about treatment are also related to medical attention.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
December 23,
1992
Received in revised form:
December 21,
1992
Received:
October 19,
1992
Identification
Copyright
© 1993 Published by Elsevier Inc.
