Knowledge, Attitude and Severity of Menopausal Symptoms Among Women Attending Primary Health Care Centers in Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Menopause is a physiologic process. Understanding its nature and symptoms can help women to adapt good quality of life during this period. There are shortages of recent data about this issue in Egyptian literature.Objectives: This study aimed to assess knowledge and attitude towards menopause among women aged 40-60 years attending primary health care centers (PHCs) in Cairo, Egypt, and to assess the severity of menopausal symptoms among them. Subjects and Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted in Cairo, Egypt. The sample size included data from 300 Egyptian women. A multistage cluster sampling technique was used to randomly select the studied two centers; El-Hagana family medicine center, and 6th district family medicine center at Nasr city. The data were collected from the studied women aged 40-60 years attending these centers by a valid structured questionnaire. The questionnaire included socio-demographic and reproductive data, and the Menopause Rating Scale rate scale (MRS) to assess the severity of menopausal symptoms. The collected data were analyzed using the appropriate statistical methods. Results:The mean age at menopause of the studied women was 46.6 ± 3.4 years. The level of good knowledge about menopause was significantly low among perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. Positive attitude towards menopause, however, was prevalent regarding most studied attitude items. The mean severity score of somatic symptoms was significantly high among perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. Also, the mean psychological and urogenital symptoms severity scoring was significantly high among these women. The mean total severity score was significantly high in perimenopausal women. Conclusion:The mean age at menopause was low. The observed low level of good knowledge necessitates more efforts for creating mass awareness about this issue.

Effect of Educational Intervention Based on Health Belief Model On Postmenopausal Women's Health Behaviors and Attitude Regarding Vaginal Atrophy

“…Similar to this, Harper et al, 2022 (25) , found that the majority of perimenopausal women in the United Kingdom were completely unaware that their symptoms were menopausal in an online survey of their attitudes and knowledge of the menopause, they experienced shock and confusion at the onset of symptoms, which frequently had a significant impact on their lives. On the other hand, this result agrees with Shams-Eldin, 2018 (26) , who studied knowledge, attitude and severity of menopausal symptoms among women attending primary health care centers in Cairo, Egypt, who reported that, the level ofgood knowledge about menopause was significantly low among premenopausal and postmenopausal women. .…”