Chinese women's symptoms: relation to menopause, age and related attitudes

Objectives The China Study of Midlife Women (CSMW) aimed to determine in mid-life Chinese women, first, the frequency of various symptoms often included in studies of menopause or the climacteric, second, attitudes toward menopause and aging, and, third, the relationship between symptoms and menopausal status, chronological age and attitudes. Methods A questionnaire was administered via face-to-face interview to a general population sample of 399 Chinese women living in two communities in northern China. Results The Chinese women displayed a low to moderate frequency of reporting 21 symptoms across vasomotor, vaginal, sleep-related, cognitive, emotional and somatic categories. Their attitudes toward menopause and aging tended to be more positive, neutral or ambivalent, as opposed to negative. There was a small, statistically significant association between six symptoms and menopausal status, four symptoms and chronological age, and 11 symptoms and negative attitudes toward menopause and aging. Conclusions Across the measures utilized in this study, Chinese women's symptom reporting is more strongly associated with their attitudes towards menopause and aging than their menopausal status or chronological age. More research is needed on cross-cultural, cross-ethnic and individual variation in women's interpretations of statements often included in mid-life attitudinal scales.