Ballard Karen
Department of General Practice and Primary Care, Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Medical School, 5 Lambeth Walk, London SE11 6SP, UK.
Fam Pract. 2002 Dec;19(6):591-5. doi: 10.1093/fampra/19.6.591.
The aims of this study were to determine women's perceived risk of menopause-related disease and to understand how this shapes their decisions about taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for disease prevention.
A qualitative study based on analysis of audio-taped semi-structured interviews. The study was carried out in a community setting in Surrey. The participants were 32 women aged 51 to 57 years, registered with GPs in the West Surrey Health Authority.
Women's ideas about the risk of menopause-related disease exist on two levels; a collective and an individual level. At a collective level, women acknowledge an increased risk of osteoporosis, and to a lesser degree, a risk of heart disease, associated with the menopause. At an individual level, however, based mainly on their family history and lifestyle, women do not generally consider themselves to be at personal risk of disease. Decisions to take HRT for the prevention of menopause-related disease are largely based on individual assessments of risk and, therefore, most women see a limited value in taking HRT primarily for disease prevention.
Whilst women tend to associate the menopause with an increased risk of disease, they do not generally consider themselves to be at personal risk, and in turn, choose not to take HRT primarily for prevention.
本研究旨在确定女性对更年期相关疾病的感知风险，并了解这如何影响她们关于采用激素替代疗法（HRT）预防疾病的决策。
一项基于对录音半结构化访谈进行分析的定性研究。该研究在萨里郡的一个社区环境中开展。参与者为32名年龄在51至57岁之间、在西萨里郡卫生局注册全科医生的女性。
女性对更年期相关疾病风险的认知存在两个层面；集体层面和个体层面。在集体层面，女性承认与更年期相关的骨质疏松风险增加，以及程度较轻的心脏病风险。然而，在个体层面，主要基于她们的家族病史和生活方式，女性通常不认为自己有患病的个人风险。为预防更年期相关疾病而决定采用HRT，很大程度上基于个体对风险的评估，因此，大多数女性认为主要为预防疾病而采用HRT的价值有限。
虽然女性倾向于将更年期与疾病风险增加联系起来，但她们通常不认为自己有个人风险，因此，她们不会主要为预防而选择采用HRT。
