[Women's attitudes to menopause and predictive variables].

OBJECTIVE

To find what women's attitudes to the menopause are and how these attitudes relate to certain personal variables.

DESIGN

Multi-centre, transversal study.

SETTING

5 clinics at three urban and teaching health centres in Granada.

PARTICIPANTS

A systematic randomised sample of women = 18 who attended on demand in June 1998: alpha = 0.05, accuracy = 3 and standard deviation from the scale of attitudes (SA), found through prior sampling, was 15.4. N = 101 women.

INTERVENTIONS

Questionnaire through interview after consultation.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Dependent variable: scale of attitudes to the menopause with 29 items.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

age, marital status, educational qualifications, work situation, cultural group, religion, continuity with her doctor, utilisation, menopausal status, perception of autonomy, opinion of the menopause, feelings towards the menopause, perceived health.

ANALYSIS

homogeneity and validity of SA. Descriptive, univariate analysis of SA with independent variables. Multiple linear regression: we found 7 factors that explained 66.5% of variance. Age 43.4 +/- 17.5. 50.5% had not reached the menopause; 10.9% were in the peri-menopause; and 37.6% in the menopause. 70.3% had feelings of relief or were neutral; 54.5% had a positive view; and 21.8% expressed no opinion. The variables explaining attitudes were feeling, continuity, opinion, utility, autonomy and perceived health.

CONCLUSIONS

Women had positive or neutral feelings and opinions about the menopause. Their attitudes to it were related to these variables and not to other social or demographic variables or to their menopausal status.