What do Spanish women know about menopause? COMEM study

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the level of knowledge that women have about menopause and to analyse whether sociodemographic aspects can influence it. For this, a multi-centre observational study was conducted in Spain using a survey including 2500 women between 35 and 75 years. Participants were administered a 10-question questionnaire with a maximum score of 45 points. The responses of 2355 women were analysed. The median age was 52 years (IQR 45–59) and the median of knowledge score was 22 points (IQR 16–27). Age (p < .001), menopausal status (p = .030), early menopause (p = .001), educational level (p < .001), type of healthcare (p < .001) and sources of information on menopause (p < .001) were factors related to the score on the questionnaire. We conclude that Spanish women have limited knowledge about menopause and it is urgent to implement training programs that can improve it.

IMPACT STATEMENT

• What is already known on this subject? The knowledge and attitudes about menopause among women can vary across countries and also according to sociocultural context. It also seems that negative attitudes towards menopause and poor knowledge of the physiology and the most frequent symptoms have an increasing effect on the severity of the specific symptoms of menopause that cause further discomfort.

• What do the results of this study add? There are very few available reports or research on the issue of postmenopausal health in Spain. We believe that it is appropriate to explore the level of knowledge of women in our country. We have verified that the level of knowledge of Spanish women is low and that some sociodemographic aspects can influence it

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Taking into account our results, it is a priority to implement health training programs to improve knowledge about menopause in Spanish women and overcome false myths and wrong beliefs.

Keywords:

• Knowledge
• menopause
• hormone therapy
• survey

Acknowledgements

The surveys were conducted by the COMEM Study Spanish investigators in the following hospitals: Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet of Zaragoza, Hospital San Jorge of Huesca, Hospital Universitario La Zarzuela of Madrid, Hospital San Carlos of San Fernando, Hospital Insular-Materno Infantil of Las Palmas, Hospital Quirón Salud of Zaragoza, Hospital Clínico San Carlos of Madrid, Hospital Universitario of Castellón, Complejo Hospitalario of Jaén, Hospital Universitario Central of Asturias, Clínica Diatros of Barcelona, Instituto Palacios of Madrid and European Institute of Sexology, Marbella.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committees of Aragon, Spain (C.I. PI18/374) and confirmed by each participating Centre.

It was a completely anonymous questionnaire, therefore the Ethics Committee decided that signed consent was not necessary. However, an information document was administered to all participants.

Author contributions

LB: is one of the study designers, has participated in the elaboration and writing of the article and is the current corresponding author.

MF: has carried out data collection and analysis and manuscript writing.

LG: has carried out data collection and analysis and manuscript writing.

PC: has carried out data collection and analysis and manuscript writing and critical revision of it

JP: has carried out data collection and analysis and manuscript writing.

NM: is one of the study designers, has participated on the conceptualisation and writing of the manuscript and critical revision of it.

The team of menopause experts who conducted the survey was composed of: L Baquedano, P Coronado, N Mendoza, I Ramirez, E de la Viuda, B Otero and S Sánchez.

This article has been translated and edited by Your English Lab.

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The datasets during and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.