The purpose of this study was to apply to nursing implementation, improving quality of the middle aged woman's life, and effectively relieving the climacteric discomforts by herselves by examining their degrees of climacteric discomfort and their adap...
The purpose of this study was to apply to nursing implementation, improving quality of the middle aged woman's life, and effectively relieving the climacteric discomforts by herselves by examining their degrees of climacteric discomfort and their adaptive styles and these effects. The subjects were 325 women between 40-60 years old who live the main cities such as Seoul, Pucan, Masan and Changwan. The data were corrected from Oct 10, 1999 to March 2, 2000 and the study was based on structured question papers. The instruments about climacteric discomforts were reconstructed 31 items of climacteric discomforts. The reliability of the instruments for self-reported discomforts was Cronbach's a .8940. The instruments about their adaptive styles and these effect were also reconstructed total 36 items based on the study of climacteric adaptive method and treatment by Lee(1997), Shin(1995), Greenwood(1992), and Gilly(1997). The analysis of the data was processed by an SAS program and included frequencies, ANOVA, and the Pearson Correlation Coefficient.
The results of the study were followed.
1. Thr avarage age of the subjects were 51.6 years old, 90.2% of them have a religion, the most of them have a high educational back ground, the subjects who have a job were less then 32%. 86.8% of the subject married, their average number of children was two, and the subjects of this study have a high income level.
2. The general health condition of subjects were followed. 74.5% of them reported that they didn't have any health problem. The phase of climacteric was that 54.5% women were at post-menopausal state, there for over the half of the subjects were in their post-menopausal state. The attitude toward the menopause for the subjects was that 55.7 % of the subjects showed positive responses.
3. The most frequently complained discomforts of subjects was 'fatigue(81.9%)', followes by 'amnesia(79.0%)', 'nervousness(58.5%)', and 'tingling sensation(57.8%)', the less common disconforts experienced by subjects were 'breast pain(19.1%)' and 'craziness(19.1%)' which are classified as severe discomfort of climacteric. The degree of high point of discomfort was 2.62, the lower point was 1.29(average was 1.73 point). It means the subjects have experienced discomforts has at least 1~3 times a week. 31 items cover 3 areas including a somatic, a psychosomatic, and a psychotic discomforts. The somatic discomfort was 1.70, the psychosomatic discomfort was 1.78, and the psychotic discomfort was 1.72. The highest item of the degree of the discomforts was 'amnesia(2.62 point)' and the followed by 'fatigue(2.58 point), 'athralgia(2.12 point)', and 'cold hands & feet(2.01 point)'.
4. The most frequently experienced climacteric adaptice style was 'a hot bath(71.7%)', followed by 'meeting friends(66.2%)', 'eating whatever she likes(58.2%)', The most effective adaptive style was 'regular exercise(1.47 point)' and the next was 'a hot bath(1.45 point)'. Then 'a hot bath' was frequently used and also an effective adaptive style of this subject.
5. In the test of relationship between the degree of climacteric discomfort and the effects of adaptive style, they hace significant positive correlation; (1) in the case of somatic discomforts, there seemed to be significant correlation with the adaptive styles for treatment(r=0.217, p=.00) was more significant correlation than the adaptive styles for treatment(r=0.154, p=.00) and the substitutional adaptive styles(r=0.111, p=.04) (3) in the case of psychotic discomforts, there seemed to be significant correlation with the adaptive styled for treatment(r=0.148, p=.00).
In conclusion, climacteric discomforts of middle aged women were not severe, but they felt mild discomforts in everyday life for example 'fatigue', 'amnesia', 'nervousness'. Also, 'regular exercise' and 'hot bath' were revealed very effective and adaptive styles for climacteric discomforts. Therefore nurse in the community and the hospital setting need to help middle aged women to change the adaptive styles by make a self-help group and to support each other for accept the climacteric discomforts positively and solve it for themselves.