Interpreting experiences of menopause and aging

After years of effort, we are finally able to include both a commentary written about an article we published previously, together with the response of the original authors to the commentary about their work. Please read what Dennis E. Reidy and Katie M. Edwards have to say about Cid & Leguisamo’s article published earlier this year entitled, “Gender Equality does not Prevent Sexual Abuse of Women.” Also, read the authors’ response to those comments as together they exemplify how the editors wish to stimulate dialog among scholars and practitioners.

Following the commentaries about the relationship between gender equality and sexual abuse, we present the new scholarly artless in Volume 43:10-11 of this journal. The new work is about health issues that occur in mid-life or beyond in the lives of women. Many of the articles are about issues that emerge around the time of menopause, but we also publish work about older women who are caregivers and about a novel way to predict risk of falls among older women. See the table I have included to summarize the authors’ contributions to global women’s health literature. If the spirit moves you, please consider writing a commentary about one of the new articles published in this collection.

As always, read and learn.

Table

Health Issue	Authors	International Literature Contribution	Extent of Global Contribution	Research Location
Menopausal symptoms	Figen Alp Yılmaz and Dilek Avci	Theoretical Contribution: Negative correlations between marital adjustment, and personality traits and menopausal symptoms.	Data limited to sample of post-menopausal women in Turkey.	Turkey
Metabolic disease	Seong-Hi Park and Chul-Gyu Kim	Theoretical Contribution: Aerobic exercise is helpful in preventing metabolic disease.	Authors conducted global literature review analyzing effects of aerobic exercise on abdominal obesity, maximum oxygen consumption, blood glucose, insulin, and serum lipids in middle-aged women.	Korea
Body image	Soheila Nazarpour, et al.	Theoretical Contribution: Body image is a predictor of quality of life in post-menopausal women.	Data limited to sample of post-menopausal women in Iran.	Iran
Cultural constructs of menopause	Kelly Bullivant Ngati Pikiao, et al.	Practice Contribution: Meta-ethnography is a heuristic tool to understand how indigenous populations construct health issues.	Data limited to Maori women in Aotearoa/New Zealand, but the process of producing meta- ethnography is sufficiently described to be replicated elsewhere.	New Zealand
Non-communicable disease prevention	Younhee Kang and Yujin Hur	Practice Contribution: A non-communicable disease prevention program is useful to build capacity for disease prevention in low to middle-income countries. Knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-care of the experimental group increased more than for those in the control group.	Korean researchers worked with a middle-aged Laotian population, but similar programs could be implemented elsewhere.	Vientiane, Laos
Burning mouth syndrome	Milica Petrović, et al.	Practice Contribution: Chokeberry juice, as additional therapy for BMS in post-menopausal women, reduced intensity of pain sensations and oral dryness feeling.	Quasi experimental design used with population of Serbian women. Study must be replicated using a double-blind experimental design, elsewhere, to make global contribution.	Serbia
Menopausal symptoms	Mariana Sosa-Ortega, et al.	Theoretical Contribution: Psychological symptoms were predicted by meaninglessness and life satisfaction; somatic symptoms only by meaninglessness; and the sexual symptoms by meaninglessness and menopausal status.	Data limited to women in Mexico, but study may be replicated elsewhere for global contribution.	Mexico
E - Health (using smart phones to deliver health education)	Mohammad Zahedul Alam and Liza Khanam	Theoretical Contribution: Old and younger women less concerned with ease of use and more concerned with usefulness, perceived reliability, value, and technology anxiety when making choices about E-Health services.	Study data limited to women in Bangladesh; replication needed for global contribution.	Bangladesh
Depression	Eveline Ndinelao Kalomo, et al.	Theoretical Contribution: Lower levels of depressive symptoms and high levels of social support from significant others and family are associated with increased resilience in older caregivers.	This is not a new theoretical finding in global literature, but important enough in this instance to publish when considering older women who care for children with HIV and AIDS.	Namibia, Africa
Risk of falling	Paula Camila Villamizar-Pita, et al.	Theoretical Contribution: A low-cost assessment of grip strength could be a predictor of falls and risk of falls.	Data limited to women in Colombia, but the point that grip strength is related to fall risk can be replicated.	Colombia
Dignity humiliation	Oscar Tranvåg, et al.	Theoretical Contribution: Interpersonal experiences of people’s indifference, non-compassionate services, and self-deprecation predict dignity humiliation.	Data limited to older women caring for spouse with dementia in Norway, but study can be replicated elsewhere.	Norway

Eleanor Krassen Covan, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
September 16, 2022
[email protected]