A Descriptive Study to Assess the Level of Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Menopause among Menopausal Women in Selected Rural Areas in Faridabad

 

Akoijam Mamata Devi¹, Sunil Kumar Dular², Ritu Yadav³

¹Associate Professor, SGT University, Faculty of Nursing, Gurgoan

²Assistant Professor, SGT University, Faculty of Nursing, Gurgoan

³Lecturer, SGT University, Faculty of Nursing, Gurgoan

 

ABSTRACT:

One of the most important stages in woman’s life is Menopause. Menopause is the permanent shutting down of the female reproductive system, a considerable length of time before the end of life span. The average age of menopause in the western world is 51 years while as in India it is 44.3 years and the normal age range for the occurrence of menopause is somewhat between the age of 45 -55. Menopausal health demands higher priority in Indian scenario. It is characterized by major physical, psychological and social changes and is currently considered as important public health problem associated with a worse health related to quality of life. Thus the investigator felt to conduct a descriptive study to assess the level of knowledge and attitude regarding menopause among menopausal women. The objective of the study was to assess the level of knowledge and attitude regarding Menopause among Menopausal women in selected rural areas of Faridabad. To find out association between knowledge and attitude regarding the Menopause among Menopausal women in rural areas with selected demographic variables. 100 menopausal women were drawn by convenient sampling technique. The tool consists of demographic variables, which was to collect personal information about the subjects and interview technique to assess the knowledge and structured five point liker scales to assess the attitude towards the Menopause among Menopausal Woman. The finding reveals that 5% of the total subjects had good knowledge, 94% had average knowledge, 1% had poor knowledge. 98% of the total subjects had positive attitude, 2%had neutral attitude, 0% had negative attitude. There were found association significant between Attitude and occupation.

 

 

 

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY:

Menopause is an event in life’’ not a disease. It is a single event in a women’s life - her last menstrual period. Menarche heralds the onset of reproductive function and menopause signals its end. Menopause can have a significant effect on a women’s quality of life. Their health needs changes significantly and it is important that women become aware of the new health risks.

 

This can occur any time between the ages of 40-50 years and result from the loss of ovarian follicles activity. India has a large population which has already crossed the 1 billion mark with 71 million people over 60 years of age and the number of menopause women about 43million in 2013. Average age of menopause is 47 years in Indian women with average life therefore Indian women are likely to spend almost 23.5 years that is one third of their total lives in menopause. It is estimated that by the end of 2015 there will be 130 million elderly women in India, necessitating substantial amount.

 

STATEMENT:

A Descriptive Study to Assess the Level of Knowledge and Attitude regarding Menopause among Menopausal Women in selected Rural Areas in Faridabad

 

OBJECTIVES:

·        To assess the level of knowledge and attitude regarding Menopause among Menopausal women in selected rural areas of Faridabad.

·        To find out association between knowledge and attitude regarding the Menopause among Menopausal women in rural areas with selected demographic variables.

 

METHODOLOGY:

Research approach:

Quantitative research approach

 

Research design:

Descriptive research design

 

Setting of the study:

Kheri Kalan and Nachauli in Faridabad

 

Sample Size:

A target of 100 samples size

 

Sample Technique:

Non probability Convenient sampling technique

 

Development of tool:

A Interview technique was prepared to assess Knowledge and a likert scale was prepared to assess  the Attitude regarding Menopause among Women

 

Period of data collection:

 Data collection procedure was carried out in the month of April 2014.During this period investigators collected the information from women by using structured interviewtechnique. Sample consisted of 100 women. The half sample was taken from kheri kalan and half sample was taken from Nachauli village, DistrictFaridabad,Haryana.

 

Majors’ findings:

·        Majority of woman (41%) were in age category of 45- 50 years,45% of the woman are having primary education, occupation (93%) were in house wife,50% woman’s belonged to joint family,97% woman belonged to Hindu religion, most of the woman 57% had the family income from 10000- 14000,married woman (90%) were in marital status and 100% woman had source of information about menopause in menopausal woman from relative.

·        94% of the total subject had good knowledge,5% had average knowledge,1% had poor knowledge.

 

Table-1 Mean knowledge score of menopausal woman  N=100

	Mean	SD	Range
Knowledge of woman among menopausal woman	15.32	2.64	20-9

Table-1 reveals that means knowledge score and standard deviation among menopausal woman is 15.31, 2.64.The knowledge score of subjects ranged between 20- 9.

 

Fig.1 Percentage Distribution of knowledge of woman among menopausal woman

 

·        98% of the total subject had positive attitude, 2% had neutral attitude 0% had negative attitude.

 

Fig-2 percentage distribution of attitude of woman among menopausal woman

 

Table-2. Mean attitude score of woman among menopausal woman N=100

	Mean	SD	Range
Attitude of woman among menopausal woman	77.81	7.15	94-62

Table -2 reveals that Mean attitude score and standard deviation among menopausal woman is 77.81, ±7.15.The attitude score of subjects ranged between 94-62.

 

·        By using chi square test it was found that there was significant association at level of 0.05 found between the knowledge and education.

·        By using chi square test it was found that there was significant association at level of 0.05 found between the Attitude and type of family.

 

SUMMARY:

The present study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge and attitude toward woman among menopausal woman of selected rural areas in Faridabad. Simple convenient sampling technique was used for selection of samples. Pilot study was conducted during the month of March 2014.this procedure was done to ensure the reliability of tool and feasibility of the study.  The actual data collection procedure was carried out in the in the month of April 2014. The half samples were taken from kheri kalan and half samples were taken from Nachauli, Distt. Faridabad, Haryana. Samples consist of 50 menopausal woman of kheri kalan and 50 menopausal woman of Nachauli,Distt. Faridabad, Haryana. Before collecting Data, Researchers introduces herself, explain the purpose of study, clarifies queries and taken interview technique from menopausal woman. The gathered Data was Analyzed by calculating mean and standard deviation, chi square to find out association with selected demographic variables. 

 

IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY:

Nursing Education:

·        Education is a form of learning in which knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to next through teaching, training, research.

·        The nurse practitioner can educate the woman regarding Menopause.

·        The nurse or health worker can educate the woman regarding complication of Menopause.

 

Nursing practice:

·        Public health nurse can plan for a periodic health education to the public to providing necessary information.

·        Present study would help the nurse to identify health problems of school children.

 

Nursing research:

·        The finding of the study can be utilized for conducting research using large sample.

·        Further research on assessing the woman knowledge and attitude towards Menopause.

·        The items on various areas, which have less effectiveness can be modified and retested to find out the effectiveness.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

·        The same study could be conducted on a large scale to generalize the results.

·        The study can be conducted in different setting with similar facilities

·        A comparative study could be conducted between the student nurses and staff nurses.

·        An experimental study can be done to assess the knowledge and attitude towards Menopause among Menopausal woman.

REFERENCE:

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3.       Marie E Pinto, A Study on Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Menopause among Rural and Urban Married Women in Mangalore, International Scientific Journals from Jaypee.

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5.       J Coll Physicians Surg Pak, Knowledge and attitude of older women towards menopause, Journal of the college of physicians and surgeons Pakistan.

6.       Humaira Saeed Malik, Knowledge and attitude towards menopause and Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) among postmenopausal women, Journal of Pakistan and Medical Association.

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Received on 06.10.2014           Modified on 27.10.2014

Accepted on 05.11.2014           © A&V Publication all right reserved