Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences
Open Access

Abstract

Influence of Demographic Characteristics on Menopausal Problems among Rural and Urban Middle Aged Women

Deepa Kannur and Sunanda Itagi

This study aims to explore the influence of demographic characteristics on menopausal problems among rural and urban middle aged women. The subjects were 160 rural and urban middle-aged women were studied during 2015-16. The women who attained menopause and belonging to 40-55 years age range were selected from 8 villages of 4 talukas of Dharwad and Bagalkote Districts. The self-structured interview schedule was used to elicit the information regarding general information, history of menopause, effects of menopause, care and management of menopause. It consists of 29 questions, categorized as low, medium and high. The menopausal problems were measured by using Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) developed by Barlin (1992) with 11 items. The responses on each item was scored as 0-4 as none to very severe. SES (Socio Economic Status) scale developed by Agarwal et al. (2005) was used to assess the socio-economic status of family. The results revealed that 49.37% of respondents aged between 51-55 years, 55% of the belonged to OBC category, 80% of women were housewife and 68.15% were belonged to middle SES. 15% and 27.50% of the women reported high knowledge in rural and urban women respectively. In Dharwad, among rural women 60% respondents reported moderate menopausal problems and 27.50% were had severe problems. While among urban, half (50%) of the participants pointed out they had moderate menopausal problems followed by 37.50% had mild problems. In Bagalkote district, 50% of rural women had moderate and 35% of the respondents had severe menopausal problems. In case of urban women, 57.50% of women had moderate followed by 27.50% suffering from mild menopausal problems. The age, SES and education were negatively significantly associated with menopausal problems and occupation was positively highly significantly associated with menopausal problems. Concluded that there is need of education and empowering of women to overcome menopausal problems.