women

Menopause is one of the most important stages in women's lives. Today, menopause is an important phenomenon due to the increase in life expectancy, the number of postmenopausal women is expected to reach 1.2 billion by 2030. It is important for women to live healthy in these years as in the reproductive years. One of the main psychological needs of humans is happiness. According to studies, happiness decreases during menopause. As a result, considering the importance of the topic, this study was conducted with the aim of determining the factors affecting happiness in menopausal women.

In order to compile this review article, searching for articles using the keywords happiness, menopause, middle-aged women, alone and in combination with AND and OR operators in databases ,such as PubMed, Scopus, Science direct, ProQuest, SID, Magiran and Google Scholar search engine without time limit. At first, 125 articles were found. The inclusion criteria were all studies that had investigated the factors affecting happiness. The reviewed studies included clinical trials, cohort and cross-sectional, and finally the data of 29 articles were used.

The results of this study led to the classification of factors affecting the happiness of postmenopausal women into five general categories. The first category includes physical factors (including the absence of: vasomotor symptoms, cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, osteoporosis, psychosomatic disorders and having a favorable condition. health). The second category includes psychological factors (including the absence of depression and anxiety, having a positive attitude towards menopause, optimism, self-esteem and resilience). The third category includes social factors such as (social support of family and friends, effective communication with colleagues). The fourth category is economic factors (including job changes, favorable income level and the absence of financial crises). The fifth category includes lifestyle (being non-smoker, having physical activity and regular exercise, marital satisfaction, stress management skills and herbal drugs) of menopausal women.

In order to improve the happiness of menopausal women, all physical, psychological, social, economic and lifestyle factors are important and should be considered in national planning and policies to improve the health of menopausal women.

The decrease in childbearing gradually pushes the age structure of the population out of youth and towards old age. This study aimed at investigating the desire to have children and its relationship with health literacy and spiritual health in married women of Fariman City, Iran, in 2023.

In this cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study, 357 married women were selected by multi-stage sampling method. Data were collected based on 4 questionnaires including demographic information, desire for fertility, health literacy, and spiritual health, and were analyzed using SPSS software and descriptive and analytical tests.

The average score of health literacy was 76.89 ± 23.16 (adequate), the average score of willingness to have children was 100.207 ± 12.77, and the average score of spiritual health was 72.53 ± 7.11 (moderate). The results did not show a significant relationship between health literacy and the desire to have children and spiritual health; however, there was a positive and significant relationship between the desire to have children and spiritual health (P = 0.042, r = 0.108). The variables of women's place of residence, education, and occupation had a significant relationship with spiritual health, and the variables of women's education and age had a significant relationship with health literacy (P < 0.001). The most important causes of delay in having children were expressed as economic factors (52.4%), personal factors (32.5%), and cultural factors (5.3%). There was a significant relationship between occupation, income, and education with unwillingness to have children (P < 0.001).

It seems that solving economic problems (employment and income level) as the most important reason for reluctance to have children can lead to an increase in having children. In order to achieve this goal, the joy of becoming a parent can be promoted through promoting spiritual health, and people's negative views on having more children can be corrected in various possible ways, and health interventions can be carried out to increase women's spiritual health.

Considering the psychological needs of infertile women, the important role of cognitive emotion regulation in their psychological state, and the lack of an intervention to deal with infertility stress in Iran, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral infertility stress coping training on the cognitive emotion regulation of infertile women.

This is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test/post-test/two-month follow-up design. The study population consists of infertile women who referred to infertility treatment centers and visited specialists in Kermanshah, Iran, in 2021. Using a convenience sampling method, 40 women were selected and were divided into two groups (intervention and control). They completed Newton’s fertility problem inventory and Garnefski and Kraaij’s cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire (CERQ). The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software, version 24 using repeated measures analysis of variance.

There were significant differences in the CERQ scores in the intervention group between the three stages of pre-test, post-test, and follow-up (P<0.05). The significant effect was maintained in the follow-up stage (P<0.05).

The cognitive-behavioral infertility stress-coping training program is effective in improving the cognitive emotion regulation of infertile women. Therefore, this program can be used to reduce the stress of infertile women in Iran.

People with high resilience can easily tolerate pain and have less stress. This study aims to investigate the effect of the emotional freedom technique (EFT) on the stress and resilience of infertile women.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted from February to August 2023 on 98 women with infertility problems referred to two public and private clinics in Bandar Abbas, South of Iran. They were randomly allocated into two intervention and control groups on a 1:1 basis. Participants in the intervention group received the EFT at 4 training sessions with a 1-week interval. A sociodemographic form, Newton’s fertility problem inventory (FPI), and the Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC) were completed before and after the intervention. Data analysis was performed in SPSS software, version 16 and independent and paired t-tests were used.

The mean score of FPI before and after the intervention were 168.06±34.06 and 134.59±26.02 in the intervention group, and 155.26±31.08 and 156.83±31.28 in the control group, respectively. After the intervention, the FPI score in the intervention group was significantly lower (P<0.001). The mean CD-RISC score before and after the intervention was 26.64±20.13 and 82.97±9.63 in the intervention group and 83.71±30.33 and 71.04±12.95 in the control group, respectively, indicating a significant increase in the resilience of the intervention group compared to the control (P<0.001). 

The EFT can reduce the stress of infertile women and increase their resilience. This cost-effective, safe, and easy method can be recommended by the medical staff to infertile women for better resilience and stress reduction.

Considering the decrease in fertility in Iran, which has reached below replacement levels, policymakers seek to increase the fertility rate through incentive policies. Therefore, research on economic and social factors affecting fertility and the intention to have children can help formulate more appropriate demographic policies.

In this quantitative study, the survey technique was employed, utilizing a standard questionnaire for data collection. The statistical population comprised married women aged 15 to 49 residing in Shiraz. A total of 384 women were surveyed in 2023, and data analysis was conducted using SPSS 27 software

The findings indicated that, among the contextual variables, the duration of marriage, income, class belonging, housing status, and employment status had a significant effect on the probability of women's fertility intention (p< 0.05). Additionally, perceived social support and marital satisfaction significantly increased the probability of women's fertility intention (p<0.05)

As the structure of families has shifted from extended to nuclear, it is possible that women may not receive as much informal social support from their neighbors as in the past. Therefore, official government support can fill this void. Additionally, identifying couples experiencing marital conflicts and attempting to strengthen marital satisfaction while resolving conflicts through counseling programs can have a positive impact on fertility levels

Active and effective participation of women as half of the effective forces of any society, in addition to ensuring sustainable growth and survival, has a serious connection with individual, family and social prosperity policies This study aimed to investigate the status of women's scientific productions in the field of health and the factors affecting it and providing solutions to improve the corresponding processes and outputs.

Through the first step, in order to examine the status of women's scientific positions and scientific productions, a systematic search was completed through the main international databases PubMed, ISI/WOS and SCOPUS and the domestic sources. In the second part, in-depth individual interviews were conducted with 18 key experts and informants. The results of the qualitative analysis of these two stages were finalized and approved by a panel of experts.

Policies related to the role of women in science and technology also face challenges in developed countries. Identifying capabilities, providing equal competitive opportunities, and encouraging women to enter the fields of scientific participation require removing restrictions and will not be easily achieved. Despite the priority of the issue and the efforts made, there is still a clear deficiency in relevant scientific documentation and supporting policy-making in this area.

Providing supporting documentation for policy-making, sustainability of policies and programs, continuous evaluation and monitoring of programs, analysis of inequality indicators in the field of participation of women and men in the country's scientific production, and attracting women's participation in policy-making, planning, and implementation are among the most important strategies emphasized in the present study.

Maladaptive schema modes negatively impact quality of life, requiring effective interventions to improve this area. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of “Schema Modes Therapy” on improving the quality of life and schema modes of women aged 20 to 40.

The current research was of semi-experimental type with pre-test, post-test with control group and follow-up. The statistical population of the present study included all women 20 to 40 years old of Isfahan city in 2023. 28 women aged 20 to 40 were selected based on available sampling. Then they were randomly assigned to the “Schema Modes Therapy” group (14 women) and the control group (14 women) by lottery. The research data was collected with a demographic questionnaire, World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Version WHOQOL-BREF and "Schema Mode Inventory". Content validity was done by qualitative method and reliability by internal consistency method by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Then, for the intervention group, 10 90-minute sessions of “Schema Modes Therapy” (1 session per week) were conducted. The control group received the treatment after the research was completed. After the completion of the intervention, a post-test and a follow-up was conducted 2 months later. Data were analyzed in SPSS. 23 software. To analyze the data, repeated measurement variance analysis and Benferoni's post hoc test were used.

There was a significant difference between the intervention group and the control group in the variable of quality of life and schema modes, in the post-test and follow-up phase. Therefore, the intervention was effective in on improving the quality of life and schema modes of women aged 20 to 40 (P<0.05).

Schema Modes Therapy improving the quality of life and schema modes of women aged 20 to 40. It is suggested that psychologists who work with women use the findings of this research to improve the quality of life and schema modes of women.