The Relation between Menopausal Symptoms among Rural Women and Their Quality of Life

Background: Menopause is a normal physiological process of cessation of menses in women. During menopausal period women can experience many symptoms. These symptoms can be severe enough to affect their quality of life (QOL). The characteristics of rural women can affect the manifestations and treatment of their health problems. Aim of the study: to assess the relation between menopausal symptoms among rural women and their quality of life. Subjects and Method: Design: A descriptive cross- sectional study design. Setting: The Rural Health Unit of Ceber bay rural village in Tanta city. Subjects: A convenient sample of 400 menopausal women who experienced stop of menstrual cycle for at least 12 months and free from chronic diseases. Tools of the study: Three tools were used by to obtain the necessary data for this study. Tool I: A structured interview schedule: which included two parts: Part (1): Socio demographic characteristics of menopausal women, Part (2): Obstetrical history of menopausal women. Tool II: Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) questionnaire. Tool III: World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL BREF). Results: Less than half (48%) of rural menopausal women had a moderate menopausal symptom and more than one-quarter (27.3%) of them had a mild symptom. About one-quarter (24.7%) of them had a severe symptom. More than half (52.0%) of the studied menopausal rural women had a good quality of life and less than one-half (47.4%) of them had fair level of quality of life. Conclusion: The QOL of menopausal rural women is affected by their menopausal symptoms where a negative high significant correlation was found between the total score of menopausal rating scale of the studied menopausal rural women and the total score of their QOL. Recommendations: Develop specific health educational programs aimed to improving the quality of life of menopausal rural women and management of their problems and complains.