Differences in climacteric symptoms were found between two groups. Cultural variables such as familial structure, women's self-esteem, and perceived social support were correlated with symptomatology.
Cultural *YZ and XZ contributed equally. background has been shown to influence climacteric symptoms of women. This study compares various characteristics of climacteric symptoms, illness conception, health-seeking behavior, and attitude towards menopause of Mosuo women, a Chinese ethnic minority with a matriarchal structure, and Han Chinese women, the majority ethnic group of China with a patriarchal structure. Through convenience sampling, 51 Mosuo and 47 Han women ages 40 to 60 completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the modified Kupperman Menopause Index (KMI), the Self-Rating Scale of Illness Conception and Health Seeking Behavior (SSICHSB) and the Menopause Attitude Questionnaire (MAQ). The Mosuo and Han Chinese women are comparable with regard to their age, educational levels and menstrual status. During climacteric, Mosuo women showed less severe melancholia ( p = .009), reported less health-seeking behavior ( p = .009), and displayed more positive attitudes towards menopause than their Han Chinese counterparts ( p < .001). One predictive variable of the melancholia severity in Mosuo was “menarche age”, while that in the Han group was “social view on the menopause”. Future research with a larger sample is needed to deepen our understanding about the interaction between culture and climacteric symptoms.
Background: Culture has been shown to influence climacteric symptoms of women. This cross-cultural study compared the climacteric symptoms, self-esteem and perceived social support between Mosuo and Han Chinese women and explored the culture impact on these variables. Mosuo is a Chinese minority with matriarchal structure and Han Chinese is the majority ethnic group of China with patriarchal structure. Method: Through convenience sampling, 54 Mosuo women and 52 Han Chinese women aged between 40 and 60 completed the sociodemographic questionnaire, Menopause Rating Scales (MRS), Self-Esteem Scale (SES) and Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS). Results: As compared to Han Chinese women, Mosuo women scored lower in psychological and somato-vegetative factors of the MRS, but higher in the SES and the "intra family support" factor of PSSS. Multilinear regression indicated that in Mosuo group high severity of climacteric symptoms was correlated with low self-esteem, while in Han Chinese group high severity of symptoms was correlated with low self-esteem, little perceived intra family support and the history of premenstrual symptoms. Conclusion: Mosuo women during climacteric showed better health status, higher self-esteem and perceived more intra family support compared with Han Chinese women. The predictors of the severity of the climacteric symptoms were different in each ethnic group respectively, which could be related to cultural diversity in the interaction between symptom severity and psychological characteristics.
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