MENOPAUSAL-RELATED HEALTH SYMPTOMS AND QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG WOMEN IN ACADEMIA: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT FROM COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA

Jane Roli Adebusuyi

Abstract


Women are vital asset to human existence, and anything affecting their wellness will as well impact on the health of the family and community. For many women menopause connotes negative life experiences. For many women menopause is characterized with fear fuzzy thinking, anxiety, insomnia, hot flashes, loss of libido, loss of youth, femininity, beauty, calcium and more. The negative labelling attached to menopause coupled with the traditional medical response to women's health issues, undoubtedly contributed to limited knowledge, poor perception and unhealthy attitudinal dispositions of women towards menopause. The objective of this study was to investigate the menopausal-related health symptoms and quality of life among women in Colleges of Education in South-West, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design of an ex-post-facto type. The sample size consisted of 157 women of menopausal age. A standardized questionnaire tagged "Menopausal – specific quality of life questionnaire" was used to collect data from the respondents. A reliability index of 0.81 was reported for the scale. Data was analyzed using both descriptive (percentage, mean, average mean and standard deviation) and inferential (chi-square and Pearson Correlation Coefficient) statistics. The result shows that the women in academia experienced all the menopausal-related health symptoms. They were more affected with the psychosocial factors [25.1 (89.7%) ± 5.89], physical factors [55.7 (82%) ± 7.33], sexual factors [9.0 (75.2%) ± 2.71], and the vasomotor factors [8.98 (74.8%) ± 2.93]. Age (x2 = 13.33, p = .009), period of last menstruation (x2 = 8.61, p = .000) and age at menopause (x2 = 11.08, p = .00) are good correlates of menopausal-related health symptoms. Also, the study indicated an inter-relationship among the components of menopausal-related health symptoms and quality of life. This study concluded that the most severe symptoms are found in psychosocial, physical, sexual and vasomotor domains, and they are equally interconnected. It is therefore recommended that women sexuality and sexual lives is crucial to their wellness. Aging women may need to be helped to adapting to life during menopause.


Keywords


Menopausal-related health symptoms, quality of life, women

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