Tsao Lee-Ing, Su Mei-Chen, Hsiao Ping-Ju, Gau Yueh-Mei, An Chi, Lin Kuan-Chia
Department of Research and Development & School of Nursing, National Taipei College of Nursing, Taiwan, ROC.
Maturitas. 2007 Jul 20;57(3):296-305. doi: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2007.01.013. Epub 2007 Mar 9.
The study purpose was to evaluate the longitudinal effects, after 3 months and 1-year, of a perimenopausal health education intervention for mid-life women in Taiwan.
This study was conducted at two hospitals and their neighborhood communities (each included three subgroups, traditional Chinese, gynecologic and neighborhood communities), using a parallel-design, control trial for mid-life women. There were three instruments: (1) the Perceived Uncertainty Scale, (2) the Perceived Perimenopausal Disturbances Scale and (3) the Practice of Health Behaviors Scale. The intervention effects from the study baseline to a 1-year follow-up were estimated using the mixed effect model (SAS-MIXED procedure) for repeated measures of health behaviors, perceived uncertainty and perceived perimenopausal disturbances.
A total of 161 women were in the education group, while 174 women were in the control group. After a 1-year follow-up, health education intervention had significantly increased the practice of health behavior in both Chinese medicine subgroups (beta=15.39, P<0.001) and gynecologic clinics subgroup (beta=10.08, P<0.005). On the other hand, health education intervention had significantly decreased perceived uncertainty in subgroups of Chinese medicine (beta=-9.52, P<0.005).
The perimenopausal health education had positive effects in reducing perceived uncertainty and increasing practice of health behavior among women from Chinese medicine clinics after a 1-year follow-up. Women from the gynecologic clinics showed the intervention effects of increasing health behavior after a three month and 1-year follow-ups. However, the women from neighborhood communities did not show any significant intervention effects at follow-ups. It is important to urge the women from communities to promote health practices for their perimenopausal transition instead of just living with their changing health.
