Quality of life after the menopause: a population study

Objective: To assess the impact of menopause and some sociodemographic vari ables on quality of life (QoL). Materials and methods: Four hundred and eig hty-one women aged 40-59 years attending the Southern Metropolitan Health S ervice in Santiago de Chile were studied using the Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire for Menopause from Toronto University. Results: Univariate a nalysis showed that menopausal women have worse QoL scores than women conse rving cycles in the four areas of the questionnaire: They show a 10.6-fold higher risk for suffering vasomotor disorders affecting QoL, a 3.5-fold hig her risk for psychosocial impairment, a 5.7-fold higher risk for physical d isorders, and a 3.2-fold higher risk for sexual disorders (P < 0.0001). Reg arding the influence of social markers (age, marital status, school years, work, number of children and sexual activity), housewives were found to hav e higher, worse, scores than working women in all test components (vasomoto r, 3.11 +/- 1.90 versus 2.57 +/- 1.71, P < 0.003; psychosocial, 3.44 +/- 1. 59 versus 2.92 +/- 1.45, P < 0.0007; physical, 3.45 +/- 1.36 versus 2.96 +/ - 1.20, P < 0.0001: sexual. 3.63 +/- 2.23 versus 3.49 +/- 1.95, P < 0.0001) . However, logistic regression demonstrated that the only variable found to cause a significant impairment in QoL was menopause. Conclusion: Menopause causes a decrease in quality of life, which is independent from age and ot her sociodemographic variables. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.