ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To describe menopause symptoms in postmenopausal Maori and non-Maori New Zealand women, and explore relationships between symptoms, sociodemographic profile and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) use. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis of data collected during recruitment of women from 27 primary-care practices into an observational study and the international WISDOM trial of postmenopausal HRT. RESULTS: A total of 3616 women aged 49-70 years (mean 58.9 years) were recruited between 1999 and 2004. Maori and non-Maori participants differed in demographic and clinical characteristics, but few differences were observed in the frequency of menopause-related symptoms. Vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes and/or night sweats) were reported by 34.4% of women, with no statistically significant difference between Maori and non-Maori (controlling for demographic variables, p > 0.05). Compared to non-Maori, Maori were less likely to have ever used HRT (24% vs. 54%), and only 5% of Maori reported current HRT use compared to 30% of non-Maori (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Maori and non-Maori have the same rate of self-reported vasomotor symptoms despite differences in factors thought to influence the experience of menopause symptoms. Differences in HRT use between Maori and non-Maori need to be further explored to identify contributing factors and whether, in turn, these factors impact on quality of life.
Subject(s)
Attitude to Health/ethnology , Hot Flashes/ethnology , Menopause/ethnology , Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander/statistics & numerical data , Sweating , Aged , Cross-Sectional Studies , Estrogen Replacement Therapy/statistics & numerical data , Female , Holistic Health , Humans , Middle Aged , New Zealand/epidemiology , Quality of Life , Self Efficacy , Socioeconomic FactorsABSTRACT
This article examines four disorders of auditory processing that can result from selective brain damage (cortical deafness, pure word deafness, auditory agnosia and phonagnosia) in an effort to derive a plausible functional and neuroanatomical model of audition. The article begins by identifying three possible reasons why models of auditory processing have been slower to emerge than models of visual processing: neuroanatomical differences between the visual and auditory systems, terminological confusions relating to auditory processing disorders, and technical factors that have made auditory stimuli more difficult to study than visual stimuli. The four auditory disorders are then reviewed and current theories of auditory processing considered. Taken together, these disorders suggest a modular architecture analogous to models of visual processing that have been derived from studying neurological patients. Ideas for future research to test modular theory more fully are presented.
