Abstract

Menopause has in the last two decades received a lot of attention in developed countries; the scanty literature on the subject in Africa and Nigeria in particular is probably a reflection of the level of interest on the subject. This inadequate concern and information on menopause in Nigeria and Kwara State in particular provided the stimulus for the present work. This intervention study determined the knowledge, attitude, and adjustment practices of menopausal women in the Ilorin metropolis towards menopause as well as evaluating the impact of health education on their knowledge, attitude, and adjustment practices toward menopause.
The study was carried out in 3 stages; pre-intervention, intervention, and post-intervention. In the pre-intervention stage, pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaires were administered by trained interviewers to 360 menopausal women (both study and control) aged 40 years and above, who were selected through a multistage sampling technique. Information was collected on respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude, and adjustment practices as well as symptomatology and sources of information on menopause. The pre-intervention also involved Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to provide qualitative information on menopause. The intervention was in the form of health education including health talks, and the distribution of printed materials. A post-intervention assessment was carried out among the study and control groups three months after the health education intervention using the same instrument used in the pre-intervention.
Over one-third of the respondents study, 70 (39.3%), and control 70 (38.9%) were 50-59 years old with a mean age of 57.2±1.2 years. The majority [study 144 (80.9%), control 152 (84.5%) of the respondents were from the Yoruba ethnic group. Most were Muslims study 129 (72.5%), control 152 (83.3%) and the literacy level was high with over fifty percent of respondents having formal education [study 94 (52.8%), control 105 (58.3%)] . Only 59 (33.1%) of the study and 43 (23.9%) of the control respondents were aware of what they were
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likely to go through before attaining menopause. Pre-intervention analysis indicated that the majority of study respondents 140 (78.6%), control respondents 148 (82.2%) had poor knowledge of the meaning of menopause, with only 41 (23.0%) and 40 (22.2%) for study and control respondents respectively appropriately defining menopause. This notwithstanding, over half of the respondents studied 108 (60.7%), control 92 (51.1%) did not know why their menstruation finally stopped. With regards to the attitude of the respondents, pre-intervention analysis showed that about half of the respondents study 87 (48.9%) and control 80 (44.4%) were positively disposed towards menopause. A comparison of the respondents’ methods of adjustment practices showed that 54 (30.3%) of the study respondents and 72 (40.0%) of the control sought medical advice or treatment. About 64 (36%) and 56 (31.1%) of the study and control groups respectively were relieved by social interaction. However, following health education, the study respondents’ knowledge of menopause increased significantly (p value= 0.00001) from 41 (23.0%) to 129 (73.7%). Their positive attitude also changed significantly (p value= 0.00001) from 87 (48.9%) to 157 (89.7%). All the respondents in the https://docs.projectchampionz.com.ng/study group had adjustment practices towards menopause ranging from 56 (31.5%) to 150 (86.7%) with a higher mean adjustment practices scores of 56.0 and 52.9 for the married ones and those with post-secondary education respectively. Analysis of sociodemographic variables on the mean attitudinal and adjustment practice scores of the respondents revealed that the older and higher their educational attainment the higher their mean score.
This study shows that health education intervention has a significant (p-value = 0.00001) impact on the knowledge, attitude, and adjustment practice of menopausal women towards menopause in the Ilorin metropolis. Further research and regular health education on menopause by health workers are recommended.

IMPACT OF HEALTH EDUCATION ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND ADJUSTMENT PRACTICES TOWARDS MENOPAUSE AMONG MENOPAUSAL WOMEN IN ILORIN METROPOLIS, KWARA STATE. GET MORE PUBLIC HEALTH PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS