Determinants of Quality of Life among Menopausal Market Women Traders in a South-Western Town, Nigeria

Abstract

Menopause marks the end of a woman’s reproductive life with associated physical, social, mental and cultural changes. Menopausal symptoms are known to impair the quality of life (QoL) of women. This study assessed the determinants of quality of life among menopausal women traders in a South-Western Town, Nigeria. Methodology:   This study adopted descriptive research design. 421 respondents were purposively selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria.  Standardized Structured Questionnaire that was pretested and validated was used to collect data. The data obtained were analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 23 and P-value were set as 0.05. Results: Socio-demographic characteristics distribution of respondents showed that 286 respondents (67.9%) were married; 205 respondents (48.7%) were secondary school holders and the menopausal mean age was 48.45±3.78 years. On determinants of QoL, 328 respondents (78.0%) reported good sleep; 301 respondents (71.5%) reported good memory; 138 respondents (32.8%) reported enjoyment of love life; and 215 respondents (51.0%) claimed to work actively. On the overall QoL 223 respondents (53.0%) experienced fair QoL; there is no significant relationship between QoL and selected demographic variables, their P value were, age = 0.48, number of children = 0.13, educational qualification = 0.70, occupation = 0.20 and monthly income = 0.53. Conclusion: The study concluded that respondents’ love life has the least reported response among the determinants, and little above half has fair QoL. Therefore public health practitioners need to pay special attention to comprehensive sexuality education for menopausal women to improve their QoL.