Menopausal symptoms and the awareness of menopausal-related information in low-income mid-aged women from Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Gynecol Endocrinol
; 40(1): 2333418, 2024 Dec.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38563054
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To assess menopausal symptoms and determine awareness of menopausal related information in mid-aged women.METHODS:
This was a cross-sectional study in which 140 women aged 40 to 60 years from Guayaquil, Ecuador were surveyed with the short 10-item Cervantes Scale (CS-10) and a questionnaire containing personal data and questions assessing awareness of menopause related information.RESULTS:
The mean age of the sample was 48.0 ± 5.6 years. More than half of surveyed women had low education and non-urban residency, none were on menopausal hormone therapy, 33.6% had hypertension, 35% were postmenopausal, 78.6% had an increased body mass index (overweight/obese) and 92.9% had abdominal obesity (waist > 88 cm). The average CS-10 score was 15.3 ± 9.0 with a median of 14.0. The three most frequent menopausal symptoms were muscle-joint pain (75.0%), changes in skin texture (74.3%) and vaginal dryness (71.4%). Regarding awareness of information related to the menopause, it was found that 98.6% of women had no idea about what the menopause is and the average age of its onset. Interestingly, although 61.4% knew that during the menopause there is weight gain, 57.9% were sedentary. Married, postmenopausal, older and less educated women presented higher mean total CS-10 scores. Contrarily, those with less awareness of menopause related information present lower scores.CONCLUSION:
In this low-income mid-aged female sample there was a high rate of non-awareness regarding information related to the menopause, including an unhealthy cardiometabolic profile. There is a need for educational programs aimed to increase awareness in this high-risk population in relation to the surveyed aspects in order to improve their health status and prevent chronic conditions.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Bases de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Menopausia
/
Hipertensión
Límite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
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Middle aged
País/Región como asunto:
America do sul
/
Ecuador
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Gynecol Endocrinol
Asunto de la revista:
ENDOCRINOLOGIA
/
GINECOLOGIA
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Ecuador