Titima Tungpimoljit. Knowledge attitude and self-care of postmenopausal women in the rural area Sakhonnakorn province Thailand. Master's Degree(Human Reproduction and Population Planning ). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2008.
Knowledge attitude and self-care of postmenopausal women in the rural area Sakhonnakorn province Thailand
Abstract:
Menopause is a physiological change which has several effects on the physical
and mental health of women. The objectives of this cross-sectional survey research
are to study knowledge, attitude and self-care of post menopausal women in the rural
area of Sakhonnakorn Province, Thailand. Data was collected by interviewing 115
post menopausal women who live at Vanonnivas District in Sakhonnakorn Province.
Descriptive statistics included frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation.
Chi-square test and Pearson's Product Moment Coefficients were used for hypothesis
testing of association at the significance level of α=0.05 by using the SPSS V.14
statistical program.
The results of the study showed that mean age of postmenopausal women was
57.10±3.78 years. Most postmenopausal women (94.8 %) completed primary school.
Ninety nine point one percent were married and 88.7 % had more than 4 children.
Most women were farmers (80.9 %). Their average family income was 4,851±5,734
bath per month. Most (90.4 %) had universal coverage health insurance for health
care. Most (65.2 %) had had cessation of menstruation for 5 years or more. Regarding
knowledge, most of them (76.6 %) had fair or low level of knowledge about
menopause with the mean score of 8.3± 2.77 from 15 question, and 67.0 % had fair or
low attitude towards menopause. Twenty nine percent had low level of self-care.
Regarding source of knowledge about menopause, most of them (38.3 %) had got
knowledge from friends. Other sources of knowledge were less common. The factor
which had significant association with level of knowledge of menopause was marital
status (α<0.02).
In conclusion, knowledge and attitude of postmenopausal women in the rural
area was rather low. Thus knowledge or advice about menopause and self-care should
be provided by more appreciate sources of knowledge such as by community radio or
from health personnel and hospital staff, and should be widely disseminated for
improving self-care during the postmenopausal period.