Diseases, health behaviors, psychological health and associated factors among women aged 50-70 years: a cross-sectional study in Hunan Province, China

ABSTRACT

This cross-sectional study identified 2, 585 women aged 50–70 with certain diseases, health behaviors and psychological health problems among a representative and community-conducted sample of women in Hunan Province of China. It disclosed their poor health status: 51.0% had chronic diseases, 49.6% had gynecopathy, 23.6% had mastopathy, 57.1% failed to avoid secondhand smoke, less than 50% completed periodic health examinations, and 3.1% were anxious. Chronic diseases are expected to be serious health problems in the next 10 years, emphasizing the importance of women discussing their health status. Common diseases should be managed via public health service projects, and free screening and treatment of common diseases should be provided. To enhance women’s health knowledge and awareness, targeted health education is necessary in accordance with their physiological and psychological characteristics.

KEYWORDS:

• Health status
• health behaviors
• psychological health
• healthy aging
• women

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank all the women who participated in this study and the efforts of the relevant government departments of Hunan Province for the implementation of the Women’s Health Needs Survey 2018 and the investigators for data collection. We also thank AJE for the help with language editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the women theory and practice project of Hunan Women Federation and Research Association under Grant 20YB03.