Mental health aspect of quality of life in the menopausal transition

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate factors associated with mental health quality of life (QOL), such as depressed mood, anxiety, poor memory and sleep, among midlife women according to the menopausal status.

Material and methods

Participants were 500 women aged 40–65 years. Data were collected using socio-demographic questionnaire, Women’s Health Questionnaire (domains of depressed mood-DEP, anxiety-ANX, memory-MEM and sleep-SLE) and Short Form-36 (Mental Composite Score) for assessment of health-related QOL. Factors associated with poorer DEP, ANX, MEM and SLE were examined using adjusted linear regression models.

Results

In premenopausal women, lower household monthly income (p = .046) was associated with higher level of DEP; higher body mass index (p = .045) was associated with higher ANX; having gynecological illnesses (p = .017) and menopause-related symptoms (p = .039) were associated with poorer MEM; being married (p = .036), drinking alcohol (p = .036) and having more physical activity (p = .041) was associated with better SLE. In postmenopausal women, worse DEP was more likely among women residing in city outskirts (p = .009), who are not married (p = .038) and with sedentary occupations (p = .049); lower education level (p = .030) was associated with more ANX; lower education level (p = .045) and having menopause-related symptoms (p = .044) were associated with poorer MEM; not engaging in regular recreation (p = .031) was associated with better SLE.

Conclusions

To improve QOL, pre- and postmenopausal women should not only be supported in the management of menopause-specific symptoms. Women should also receive recommendations as to the behavioral and personal changes when approaching the midlife period.

Keywords:

• Depression
• anxiety
• memory
• sleep
• menopause

Acknowledgements

We sincerely appreciate Myra Hunter for allowing us to use the original versions of the Women’s Health Questionnaire. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the two Community Health Centers in Belgrade (“Vracar” and “Rakovica”) for allowing us to conduct this study using their patients and facilities. Finally, we would like to thank all participants for taking interest in our study.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

No funding was received for this study. TG receives grant from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia [grant no. 175087] for other projects.