C. Lydakis et al., WOMENS AWARENESS OF, AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS, HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY - ETHNIC-DIFFERENCES AND EFFECTS OF AGE AND EDUCATION, International journal of clinical practice, 52(1), 1998, pp. 7
To investigate ethnic differences and the effect of age and education
on awareness and attitudes of women towards hormone replacement therap
y (HRT), we conducted a questionnaire survey of 180 women attending a
gynaecology clinic, of whom 152 (84.4%) responded, Seventy-one of the
women had heard of HRT, Awareness of HRT was higher in the 50-59 year
age group and in women with higher education, but lower in Indo-Asian
women than in white and black/Afro-Caribbean women. Friends, relatives
and the media were important sources of information (apart from the d
octor), especially among the younger age groups, The women themselves
ranked their overall understanding of HRT as 'low'; 78% felt they did
not know enough about the subject, A distorted perception of benefits/
risks associated with HRT was also noted - cardiovascular protection w
as not appreciated, whereas there was an excessive fear of breast canc
er, Twenty-eight per cent of the menopausal, postmenopausal and hyster
ectomised women surveyed were current HRT users, We conclude that fact
ors such as ethnicity, age and educational level have an impact on wom
en's awareness of and attitudes towards HRT, Some confusion about the
real benefits/risks still exists, which probably accounts for low acce
ptance of this treatment, and suggests that clinicians prescribing HRT
need to be aware of these problems.