Quality of life after the menopause and its relation with marital status

Abstract

Background: The age of menopause has not changed in past centuries; however the life span has gradually increased.
Today's women spend one third of their life time after menopause. This study investigates quality of life after the menopause
and its relation to marital status.
Methods: A descriptive study was conducted. The sample consisted of 384 post-menopausal women in Isfahan in 2006.
Data was collected using the menopause quality of life questionnaire (MENQOL) and the Utian quality of life scale
(UQOL) filled by interviewing. Content validity and cronbach's alpha were used respectively to ensure the validity and
reliability of the questionnaires. Inferential and descriptive statistics via SPSS software were used for data analysis.
Results: In psychological dimension, the highest scores of quality of life was in divorced women and married women
live with their husbands (MLH), in physical dimension, it was for widowed women, in social dimension it was for MLH
women and in sexual dimension -based on the marital status– it was 18.84% for MLH women. There was a significant
difference between marital status and quality of life in psychological dimension (p=0.03) and sexual dimension
(p=0.000). However, there is no significant difference between marital status and quality of life in social and physical
dimensions.
Conclusion: Marital status and the marriage satisfaction are related to the post-menopausal women's quality of life.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop effective intervention programs to improve their marriage satisfaction and provide
health care services for them.
Key words: Quality of life, menopause, marital status