Health seeking behaviour of the menopausal women in urban slum of Dhaka city

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was carried out among 384 postmenopausal women living in Vashantek slum of Dhaka city to assess their perception and attitude towards menopause, their experience with menopausal symptoms and the management of those along with their health seeking behaviour. The study was conducted in the slum at household level through face to face interviews and data was collected with a pre-tested questionnaire during June 2014 to May 2015. The median age of the postmenopausal women was found 57.5 years and a large percentage of them (42%) were widows. Around 90% of them had received no education in their lives and majority of them (62%) were housewives. The duration of menopausal symptoms increases along with age which was found to be statistically significant (P value 0.000). Mean age of onset of menopause was found to be 45.3 years. Psychological and Somatomotor groups of symptoms of menopause were found to be very high whereas Urogential Symptoms were comparatively low. Commonest symptoms were tension and fear (97%), being mentally upset (97%), irritability and nervousness (96%), depression (92%), joint and muscle pain (94%) and hot flushes (95%). Around 44% of women went to nearby pharmacies to seek for remedies of symptoms and 11.2% took traditional care whereas only 15% went to a medical doctor. The main reason for not seeking medical support was found to be financial problem (45%). It was found that the menopausal women who had sought for support to manage menopausal symptoms had less Menopause rating scale (MRS) score compare to the others, who had not, this was statistically significant as well (P value 0.007). Almost 45% of the women took menopause negatively and awareness on menopause was very little or no idea (82.8%), largely due to lack of availability of information. More than 85% of the women were concerned about how their husbands react to this change in life. Overall lack of awareness on menopause and low education and socioeconomic status in a slum were found to have negative impact on perception and attitude towards menopause and health seeking behaviour. Improved awareness and better access to health services can improve the situation.