The Effect of Health Education on Knowledge and Quality of Life Among Menopause Women

Women are vulnerable population, particularly in their menopause period. During the last few decades, one of the health care concerns in women is the phenomenon of menopause with its complications and psychological disorders. Seemingly, knowledge regarding signs and complications of menopause could help women to cope and may improve quality of life in this period. This research was a quasi experimental study (before and after). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of health education training program on quality of life of women with menopause. In this research, the data gathering instrument was a questionnaire consisted of knowledge and menopause quality of life (MENQOL) items. A health education program design based on the pretest data and the post test data was within two weeks after the last session of performing the educational program. Data analysis showed that, the mean and standard deviation of participant's age were 45.5 yeary and (2.15) and the mean and standard deviation of knowledge scores, before education was 13.7 (2.4) and after education was 17 (2.92). The overall knowledge score, significantly improved after the education (t=4.39, P<0.000). The finding of this research, showed that quality of life of the women after intervention consisted of four dimensions, vasomotor (t=2.12, P<0.04), psychosocial (t=4.17, P<0.000), physical (t =4.6, P<0.000), and sexual (t =2.1, P<0.004) that significantly improved as well. Also, this study showed that the knowledge of women about signs and complications of menopause were less than the level expected. It is suggested that women should receive special education programs regarding menopause to increase their knowledge. It can be concluded that, it is necessary to educate the women, before the menopausal stage occurs, through lectures, radio, TV programs, magazine, newspaper etc. That could improve women's quality of life.