Author/Authors :
Abdollahi، Ali Akbar Abdollahi1, Mostafa Qorbani2, Hamid Asay نويسنده Academic Instructor , , Qorbani، Mostafa نويسنده Department of Endocrinology, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, , , Asayesh، Hamid نويسنده . Instructor of Paramedical School , , Rezapour، Aziz نويسنده PhD Candidate of Health Economy, Hospital Management Research Center , , Noroozi، Mehdi نويسنده Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran , , Mansourian، Morteza نويسنده Assistant professor of Health Education , , Soleimani، Mohammad Ali نويسنده PhD Candidate, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery , , Ansari، Hossain نويسنده PhD candidate of Epidemiology, Health Promotion Research Center ,
Abstract :
Background: Considering the physical, emotional and psychological complications of early or delayed meno-pause on women`s life, it is necessary to determine associated factors of menopause age. This study designed to determine menopausal age and associated factors in women of Gorgan, i.e. the capital of Golestan province in the north-east of Iran.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 804 menopausal women in Gorgan were selected via two-stage sam-pling method in 2009. The study included only women who had undergone natural menopause and had their last menstrual bleeding at least one year before. Data were gathered through structured questionnaire that in-cluded individual characteristics, socioeconomic characteristics, menstrual and fertility characteristics and cli-macteric complaints. Socioeconomic status was defined using principal component analysis. Data were ana-lyzed with T-student’s and ANOVA tests using SPSS version 16 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) for Windows.
Results: The mean menopause age was 47.6±4.45 years with the median age of 48 years. The mean meno-pause age in women with first pregnancy before 30 years (47.58±4.47years), without pregnancy (46.26±4.90years) and without delivery (46.30±4.47years) was significantly lower than others (p < 0.01). The mean menopause age was lower in single women (46.6±2.80 years), with low income level (47.7±4.39years) and smokers (47.6±4.45years) compared to others; but these differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Socioeconomic status was not associated significantly with menopause age (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: This study illustrated that menstrual and fertility factors have influence on menopausal age while socioeconomic factors were not effective.
