The Effectiveness of Education on the Knowledge and Attitude Towards Menopause Symptoms and Complications in Postmenopausal Women

Identifying the complications of menopause and their related prevention method is necessary for every woman; an important task that is achievable through health care educations. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of education on the knowledge and attitude of post-menopausal women about menopausal symptoms and complications. In this semi-experimental study, 100 women in the age of 45-60 years old were randomly selected based on the target model. Prior to the educational programs, the knowledge and attitude of postmenopausal women about the symptoms and complications of menopause were collected. Then, the educational program was performed according to the Deputy Health Educational package, followed by a thorough evaluation carried out using questionnaires in the second test phase after two months of training. The resulted data were analyzed using SPSS software and paired T-test and one-sided variance methods at the significant level of p <0.05. There was a significant difference (p<0/001) between the amount of average knowledge before and after the training. Before the training, 11% of the individuals had a poor knowledge of the subject. While 88% of the women had a moderate knowledge, only 1% of them had a good understanding. By contrast, after the training, none of the subjects had a poor knowledge, and 73% and 27% of the individuals had gained a moderate and good knowledge respectively. In addition, there was a significant difference (p <0/001) between before and after the training periods. Prior to the education program, 7% of the individuals had negative and 59% had positive attitude. However, after the program, 80% of the individuals showed a positive attitude. The training of postmenopausal women results in an improvement in the level of their awareness, and could lead to significant changes in their attitudes toward the menopause. Thus, conducting the training programs is the best way to strengthen the scientific vigor, changing the attitudes and behavior of the postmenopausal women.