Influence of socio-demographic factors on menopausal problems among working and non-working women

The cross-sectional study was conducted in Dharwad and Bagalkote districts with an aims to know the menopausal problems and to assess influence of personal factors on menopausal problems. The differential research design was used to test differences between working and non-working women in menopausal problems. Correlation design was used to know the influence of personal factors on menopausal problems. Randomized sampling technique was used to elicit the information from 480 respondents (Working=240 and non-working= 240) from both rural and urban area. The findings revealed that most common menopausal problems included were joint and muscular discomforts (68.33%) of women similarly sleep problems 51.66%, hot flushes (37.50%), sweating (6.67%) and heart discomfort (9.31%). Majority (44.17%) of the women experienced moderate level of somatic problems in both districts. The respondents (40%) of them had moderate to severe level of psychological problems and remaining 44 per cent experienced mild to moderate level of urogenital problems. The mean age at menarche was 12.04 years and mean age at menopause was 46.21 years. Half of the respondents experienced 3-5 days of bleeding during menopause and nearly half (47.50%) of the women started experiencing menopausal symptoms in the age range of 36-40 years. Present chronological age, age at menopause and occupation were negative and significantly related with menopausal problems in both working and non-working women. Education was negatively significantly related with menopausal problems. The study concluded that to overcome existing somatic, psychological and urogenital menopausal problems, educational awareness and learning self-coping methods are necessary for rural and urban women.