RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ATTITUDE TOWARDS MENOPAUSE, WELL-BEING AND MEDICAL ATTENTION AMONG WOMEN AGED 45-60 YEARS

This study aims to answer the following questions: (i) what is the att itude of women in the climacteric years towards menopause, (ii) what i s the association between attitude towards menopause and well-being an d (iii) to what extent is medical attention determined by both well-be ing and attitude towards menopause. All 2729 women aged 45-60 years li ving in a suburb of Rotterdam were sent a questionnaire, of these 1947 (71.3%) were returned. Attitude was measured on a 5-point rating scal e using 28 items that have been used in other studies. Well-being was measured by the Inventory of Subjective Health and three subscales of the Sickness Impact Profile. Medical attention was measured by asking the women whether they were currently being treated by a general pract itioner or specialist. Results show that three clusters of attitudes t owards menopause exist: two clusters encompass items reflecting attitu des towards disadvantages and advantages of the menopause, one cluster encompasses items reflecting attitudes towards (medical) treatment of the menopause. On the whole, women answer neutrally to items relating menopause with the disadvantages and tend to agree with items relatin g menopause with the advantages. The women slightly agree, premenopaus al women more than others, with items that are in favour of treatment of menopausal complaints. Agreement with items on the disadvantage clu ster is moderately associated with a low level of well-being, whereas agreement with items on the advantage cluster is slightly associated w ith a high level of well-being; the treatment cluster is not associate d with well-being. Both well-being and agreement with items on the tre atment cluster are statistically significantly associated with medical attention. Apart from these variables, the woman's ideas about treatm ent are also related to medical attention.