Empowering self-care ability - a follow-up study of clinical-based perimenopausal women personal health counselling.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the longitudinal effects of a personal counselling intervention for perimenopausal women in northern Taiwan. BACKGROUND: Women face a variety of physical changes during menopause. Counselling intervention could enrich individual health education for menopausal women. DESIGN: Quasi-experimental design. METHODS: The study used one-on-one personal health counselling with a 'menopausal health passport' for perimenopausal women. The Perceived Perimenopausal Disturbances scale, the Practice of Health Behavior scale and the Perceived Uncertainty scale were used to measure the intervention effects. Results were estimated by a Generalized Estimating Equation procedure at one and a half months, three months and six months post intervention. In addition, data regarding perceived health changes were collected qualitatively through interviews in the experimental group at the sixth month. RESULTS: A total of 34 women were included in the experimental group, while 33 were in the control group. Interaction effect results showed that personal health counselling significantly increased the practice of health behaviours at one and a half months and extended to three months post intervention. Additionally, content categories, including 'relief of symptoms', 'establishment of health behaviors', 'interaction with others' and 'consideration from others' were identified in quantitative analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that perimenopausal personal health counselling can effectively improve healthy behaviours. This study can also serve as a future reference for effective perimenopausal counselling. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: It is crucial to set up personal health counselling for perimenopausal women in clinics and develop information technology systems to support menopausal women in the technological era.

[Developing and Verifying the Validity and Reliability of the Electronic Menopausal Health Screen System].

BACKGROUND: Menopausal women are in a transitional phase between health and sickness. Although the highest standards of menopausal care include clinical assessment and patient education on menopausal symptoms, current practices lack integrated care that aim to prevent chronic diseases for which menopause is a predisposing factor. PURPOSE: To integrate menopausal disturbances; to evaluate the risk factors for osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes; and to create a reliable and effective electronic menopausal health screen system (EMHSS). METHODS: The research was conducted in the four stages of assessment and analysis, design, development, and pretest stage in order to explore the effectiveness of the developed EMHSS. RESULTS: The EMHSS has a high degree of reliability and validity. Analysis found an expert validity of .97~.99, content validity of .99, and test-retest reliabilities of .80~.96 (Pearson's correlation) and .79~.96 (intra-class correlation). CONCLUSIONS / IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The EPMHSS was developed using cross-disciplinary collaboration among nursing staff, medical practitioners, and information engineers in order to screen menopausal women. The EPMHSS provides tailored health education content for patients in a timely manner and compiles historical assessment data that may be referenced by nursing staff when providing health consultations and by physicians when delivering diagnoses and treatment.