HOW AFFECTS MENOPAUSE TO THE QUALITY OF LIFE?

This descriptive and cross-sectional study was performed to evaluatethe quality of life of menapousal womenand affecting factors. The study population consisted of women who applied to an education and research hospital’s menopause clinics in Ankara.Women (250) were included in the study according to inclusion criteria, between October 2013 and February 2014.The Individual Information Form which was developed by researchers according to the literature and Utian Quality of Life Scale were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U Testsand Kruskal-Wallis H Test with Bonferroni correction were used for data analysis. The avarage age of the study population is 54.25±6.17. The Utian Quality of Life Scale attitude mean value is 75.43±15.64, professional/work, sexual, health and emotional quality of life scores are 26.75±4.13, 9.34±3.16, 20.43±6.59, 18.91±5.43 respectively and women’s quality of life is defined as moderate level.It is found that, women’s quality of life levels rise with increase of educational status of couples, economical situation perception, regular physical exercise, positive menopause perception and with decrease of having chronical disease, medication use, having menopause related health problems (p 0.05). Additionally, decrease in sexual quality of life for surgically menapoused women and decrease in sexual and emotional quality of life for women who do not apply to healthcare services (p 0.05). Consequently, menopausal period effects quality of life negatively. In order to increase menopausal women’s quality of life, the number of menopause policlinics should be increased and nurses’ education and consultancy roles should be performed in best way.