A study on women’s health information needs in menopausal age – BMC Women’s Health – BMC Blogs Network

Demographic characteristics

A total of 301 women aged 48–55 years completed the questionnaire. The mean age of participants was 51.5 ± 2.53 years. Just over half of the women were aged 48–51 years (n = 152, 50.5%). Most participants were married (n = 226, 75%) and had no academic degree (n = 176, 58.5%). Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of participants.

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of studied women

Knowledge, interest and need levels

More than half of the participants rated their level of knowledge about menopause as ‘somewhat’ (n = 155, 51.5%). More than one-third of participants were ‘somewhat’ interested in obtaining information (n = 123, 41%). Less than half of the respondents indicated that they ‘rarely’ needed to search for information about menopause (n = 136, 45%) (see Table 2). The results of the chi-square test show statistically significant relationships between age group and knowledge level and between educational status and both knowledge and interest levels (p < 0.05) (see Table 2).

Table 2 The frequency of responses about the knowledge level, interest in obtaining, and need in searching information about menopause

Information needs

Table 3 shows 42 information items that women may need to know about menopause. The information most frequently needed was that related to breast cancer (n = 209, 69.5%), hot flushes (n = 200, 66.5%), cervical cancer (n = 194, 64.5%), non-hormonal therapies for menopausal symptoms (n = 192, 64%), laboratory tests (n = 189, 63%) and joint and muscle pain (n = 188, 62.5%). The information least frequently needed was related to consultations to reduce or quit smoking (n = 76, 25%), infertility (n = 84, 28%), men’s sexual problems (n = 89, 29.5%), women’s sexual problems (n = 115, 38%), hair and nail problems (n = 130, 43%) and consultations about exercise (n = 130, 43%).

Table 3 The frequency of “yes” responses to information items that women may need to know about menopause

The mean number of selected information items in all categories (except consultations) was higher in the 52–55-year age group than in the 48–51-year age group (p < 0.05). The mean number of selected information items in all categories (except consultations) was significantly higher for widowed women than for married women. Moreover, compared with married women, divorced women sought more information on diseases, menopausal symptoms and treatments (p < 0.05). Single women required more information about treatments. Women with academic degrees required more information about all categories compared with those without (see Table 4).

Table 4 The Negative binominal regression model to compare the differences between the mean numbers of information needed items