Elsevier

Maturitas

Volume 61, Issue 3, 20 November 2008, Pages 238-242
Maturitas

Prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms and their influence factors during menopausal transition and postmenopause in Beijing city

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2008.09.002Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms and their influence factors in women during menopausal transition and postmenopause.

Methods

A cross-sectional investigation was conducted with a composed questionnaire on general conditions, social support scoring, the Zung self-evaluating depression and anxiety scoring. All of the parameters were input into a database and analyzed with t-test, χ2 and logistic regression using SPSS.

Results

A total of 1280 women aged 45–59 in Beijing city were interviewed with the questionnaire mentioned above. The prevalence of depression symptoms and anxiety in these women was 306 (23.9%) and 131 (10.2%), respectively. Risk factors associated with depression included strait financial status, social support, dyspareunia and dry vagina, hot flashes and sweating, satisfaction with family, children fail college or job and divorced or separated. Risk factors associated with anxiety included history of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), hot flashes, vaginal dryness or dyspareunia and some negative life events.

Conclusions

Depression and anxiety were common symptoms in Chinese women during menopausal transition and postmenopause. Some psycho-social factors may play a role in the prevalence of them.

Introduction

Menopause is an inevitable stage which every female must face, and is a process of gradual decline of ovary function and estrogen level. Menopause itself is not a disease, but the decline of ovary function will induce imbalance of endocrine system and a series of related diseases.

In 2000, a population census showed women over 50 in China constituted 10% of the total population, namely 0.12–0.13 billion. It is estimated that by 2030, the number of women over 50 will reach more than 0.28 billion. Women at perimenopausal stage play very important roles and share important responsibilities in family and society and their health is associated with family happiness, social stability and development. In addition, with the development of society and improvement of life, the demands for the requested by women on their life quality is increasing. Therefore, it is of great importance to be concerned about their health and prevent related diseases for a better life. More attention should be paid to senile women’s health with the development of the economy when entering an aged society.

Apart from hot flush and sweating, women will encounter some other serious problems such as depression and anxiety when they enter menopause. Depression is a common affective disorder with a prevalence of more than 10% [1] and is still rising, probably becoming a top two disease by 2020 according to the prediction of WHO. The risk of suffering from depression is 10–26% during a woman’s life [2], twice that of a man [3]. Perimenopause is the stage at which women can easily get into depression status. Women at middle age may meet great changes and experience many negative events in their social lives such as health crisis, financial instability after retirement, empty nest and gap generation, which brings stress to them and contributes to the initiation and deterioration of depression and anxiety.

Nowadays there is lack of related epidemiological data about affective disorders, especially relating to women during menopausal transition and postmenopause. It has somewhat counteracted prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of these diseases. Therefore, we made a cross-sectional survey and wanted to know the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms and their influence factors during menopausal transition and postmenopause in Beijing city.

Section snippets

Subjects

A total of 1280 women in Beijing city were interviewed.

Sampling methods

Randomized sampling method was used in this survey. The survey was performed in eight districts of Beijing city, which included: Dongcheng, Xicheng, Xuanwu, Chongwen, Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai and Shijingshan. The total female resident population aged 45–59 of eight districts was about 1,029,000 in 2004 according to population statistical annual report of Beijing. According to formula n=Uα2[π(1π)/δ2], when π = 30%, δ = 3%, α = 0.05, and n = 

Information of sampling

According to our original scheme, 24 community health care centers should be randomly selected in the eight districts of Beijing; however, as Finance Street Community inhabited few residents, we had to add one more community. Therefore, a total of 25 sites were enrolled.

A lot of difficulties were faced during the investigation as Beijing is a city full of change. We have been substantially supported by local residency committees. But the wide reconstruction of the city has caused many residents

Depression and its related factors

The prevalence of depression is over 10%. Depression occurs twice as frequently in women than among men. Women are more vulnerable to get depression at some specific stages with estrogen fluctuations (for instance, puberty, postpartum and perimenopause). In 1996, Zhao Gengli et al. reported 419 cases of women between 45 and 55 with a depression prevalence of 46.1% in Beijing city [7]. In our study the prevalence of depression in women between 45 and 59 was 23.9%, lower than that of the other

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key Technologies R&D Program of China during the 10th five-year plan period, no. 2004BA720A08.

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