Leon-Leon Patricia, Chedraui Peter, Hidalgo Luis, Ortiz Fernando, Castelo-Branco Camil
Ecuadorian Climacteric & Menopause Society (SECLIM-Nucleo-Guayas), Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Gynecol Endocrinol. 2008 Oct;24(10):580-5. doi: 10.1080/09513590802288234.
There is scant data on social and personal aspects related to the use of menopausal hormone therapy (HT) in Latin America.
To obtain information regarding menopausal HT, i.e. use, perception, level and sources of knowledge, and to determine factors affecting several of these issues among middle-aged women of Guayaquil, Ecuador.
A total of 349 women (nursing staff), aged 40 years or more, were included in the present cross-sectional study. Participants completed a structured questionnaire including details related to HT and the reasons for not using it, as well as demographic and psychosocial data.
Only 50.1% of women considered HT beneficial. Current and former HT use was low (1.7% and 14.3%, respectively) and mean HT duration among former users was short (mean +/- standard deviation: 1.0 +/- 1.4 years). Women responded that the main reasons for not using HT were being asymptomatic (49.0%), non-established menopause (30.4%) and physician's advice (27.2%). Only 28.9% of women considered having enough information regarding HT, whereas a high percentage (93.1%) indicated willingness to participate in educational sessions addressing this issue. For most of the women the main sources of information were physicians, educational sessions and television. Logistic regression analysis determined that women with lower income and HT information did not consider HT beneficial at a higher rate than their counterparts. Premenopausal women and those with lower income were more prone to never HT use. Age and professional level were found to be confounding factors.
HT use in this population was low; hormonal status, economic income and level of HT information determined its use and benefit awareness.
在拉丁美洲，关于更年期激素疗法（HT）使用的社会和个人方面的数据很少。
获取有关更年期HT的信息，即使用情况、认知、知识水平和来源，并确定影响厄瓜多尔瓜亚基尔中年女性这些问题的因素。
本横断面研究共纳入349名40岁及以上的女性（护理人员）。参与者完成了一份结构化问卷，包括与HT相关的详细信息、不使用HT的原因以及人口统计学和社会心理数据。
只有50.1%的女性认为HT有益。目前和以前使用HT的比例较低（分别为1.7%和14.3%），以前使用者的HT平均使用时间较短（平均±标准差：1.0±1.4年）。女性表示不使用HT的主要原因是无症状（49.0%）、未确定更年期（30.4%）和医生建议（27.2%）。只有28.9%的女性认为自己对HT有足够的了解，而很大比例（93.1%）的女性表示愿意参加关于这个问题的教育课程。对大多数女性来说，主要的信息来源是医生、教育课程和电视。逻辑回归分析确定，收入较低且对HT信息了解较少的女性认为HT有益的比例并不高于其他女性。绝经前女性和收入较低的女性更倾向于从未使用过HT。年龄和职业水平被发现是混杂因素。
该人群中HT的使用率较低；激素状态、经济收入和HT信息水平决定了其使用情况和益处认知。
