PIH63 Health Related Quality of Life Trajectories among General Population in the State of Penang, Malaysia Using SF-36V2 Health Survey

Abstract

menopause symptoms in Brazil. METHODS: A total of 12,000 individuals' (age 18ϩ) self-reported data were collected from 2011 National Health and Wellness Survey (NHWS) in Brazil. QOL was measured by the physical component score (PCS) and mental component score (MCS) of the Short Form-12 (SF-12) (mean score of 47.2 for general population). Loss of work/productivity was measured by the validated Work Productivity and Activity Impairment instrument. Medical resource utilization was measured by healthcare provider, emergency room visits and hospitalization in the past 6 months. RESULTS: Among all women, 825 (13.8%) had completed menopause and 1,016 (20.8%) were currently experiencing symptoms of menopause. Average age for women currently experiencing symptoms of menopause was 49.6 years. Compared to the non-menopause group, those experiencing symptoms reported more co-morbidities (sleep difficulties 35%, insomnia 33%, depression 29%, high blood pressure 25%, high cholesterol 22%, arrhythmia/cardiac arrhythmia 17%), lower mean PCS scores (47.3 vs. 50.3), more patients visited general practitioners (56% vs. 49%), and higher mean number of visits (5.9 vs. 5.1) were observed over the past 6 months. Furthermore, those experiencing menopause symptoms reported greater impairment in daily activity (28%) compared to the non-menopause group (22.7%). All comparisons were statistically significant at pϽ 0.05. CONCLUSIONS: Results from the Brazil NHWSindicate women currently experiencing symptoms of menopause suffer from impairment in QOL, work/productivity loss, greater usage of healthcare resources and more co-morbidities. Findings indicate there is still an unmet medical need in menopause patients in Brazil.