ABSTRACT
Background: Menopause is a natural event in which different degrees of psychosomatic changes occur. The social, demographic and behavioral factors in different nations have a significant effect on symptoms of menopause. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between the personal, demographic, social and reproductive factors with symptoms of menopause and the frequency of the mental and physical symptoms of menopause among women in Tabriz, Northwest of Iran
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the clinics and health centers of Tabriz, East Azerbaijan and Iran. A total of 300 women aged 40-60 years filled a questionnaire on the socio demographic variables, reproductive history and symptoms checklist
Results: Among the symptoms, muscle and joint pain [68.7%], and increased facial hair [20.5%] were the most and the least common ones respectively. According to participants, as age increases, the symptoms worsen [p=0.003]. The frequency of the symptoms of the employed women was less than those of retired ones and housewives [p=0.001]. The physical and mental symptoms had negative relation with educational status [p<0.05]. An increase in the number of the children, the history of the oral contraceptive use and dysmenorrhea had positive relation with the frequency of the symptoms
Conclusion: The quality of life of the women during menopause worsens with an increase in age and number of children, whereas it improves with higher educational levels and employment
ABSTRACT
Along with other areas in our country, the research in medical sciences is a necessity for the maintenance and improvement of community health. The objectives of this study were to determine the intra-organizational factors of conducting research in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The matrix of the study included entire academic members and research staff of the university where 121 of them were selected randomly for a descriptive cross sectional study. A questionnaire was designed to collect data using Likert Spectrum. The major difficulty was the lack of sufficient free time. Significant differences were seen in respect with the access to facilities and conducting research, assessing expected benefits of conducting research, level of research awareness among academic members with and without research project. Differences in respect with motivation force, collaboration, job satisfaction and expected benefits from conducting research were shown to be not significant. As stated by academic members, their problems involved with conducting research projects provides lesser role of intra-organizational factors compared to that of personal factors. In other words, the most major problems in not doing research are the lack of sufficient time and proper skills in research method and innovation in looking for problems to be solved