Beliefs regarding menopausal hot flushes among climacteric women as assessed with the Hot Flush Beliefs Scale

Abstract

Background: Hot flushes (HFs) and night sweats are frequent complaints among both peri- and postmenopausal women. Beliefs regarding these complaints may vary from one population to another.

Objective: To assess HF beliefs and factors related to negative beliefs in a climacteric Hispanic population using the Hot Flush Beliefs Scale (HFBS).

Methods: A total of 1154 healthy women (40-59 years) were assessed with the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS), those presenting HFs were requested to fill out the HFBS and a questionnaire containing socio-demographic data (female and partner).

Results: A total of 646 presented HFs (56%) graded according to the first item of the MRS as mild (28.6%), moderate (33.2%), severe (29.1%) and very severe (9.1%). Mean age of these women was 49.5+/-5.2 years, with 51.9% having 12 or less years of education, 61.5% being postmenopausal and 47.2% living in high altitude. At the moment of the survey 13.9% were on HT, 12.8% on phytoestrogens and 7.1% on psychotropic drugs. Women strongly disagreed in more negatively oriented items of those contained in subscale one (beliefs about self in social context). Contrary to this, women strongly agreed in more negative oriented items contained in subscale two which assesses beliefs about coping with HFs. Women presenting with severe-very severe HFs displayed higher HFBS total and subscale scores indicating a more negative belief regarding HFs. Logistic regression analysis determined that HF severity was related to higher HFBS scores for the total and subscales one and two. Current smoking, higher parity, lower female education, female psychiatric consultation, time since menopause and partner unhealthiness and alcohol consumption were also related to higher HFBS scorings. Postmenopausal status and church attendance were related to lower scores.

Conclusion: In this mid-aged Ecuadorian female series negative beliefs regarding HFs were related to the severity of HFs and individual female or partner characteristics. Data provided from clinical research using this tool, alone or in combination with other tests, is warranted.