Menopausal symptoms: Is spirituality associated with the severity of symptoms?

• Autor(a) principal: Pimenta, Filipa
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Marôco, J. P., Ramos, Catarina, Leal, I.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/2474
• topic: Menopause symptoms; Spirituality; Structural equation modeling

The aim of this study was to explore whether spirituality was associated with menopausal symptoms. Menopausal symptoms, spirituality, health and menopausal status, and socio-demographic variables were assessed in a community sample of 710 peri- and postmenopausal women. A structural model was explored using structural equation modeling. The results evidence spirituality as a significant contributor regarding the severity of most menopausal symptoms. Among others, spirituality had a significant weight in depressive mood (b = -.414; p\.001), anxiety (b = -.308; p<.001), cognitive impairment (b = -.287; p<.001), aches/pain (b = -.148; p<.001), vasomotor (b = -.125; p = .005) and sexual symptoms (b = -.211; p<.001). Some socio-demographic variables, as well as perceived health, also predicted the menopausal symptoms’ severity. Therefore, spirituality can have a positive impact on the menopausal symptoms’ reporting.