Health-related quality of life measures for women with menopausal symptoms : a systematic review

Abstract

Background and Objectives Menopause is a natural transition, an important life event that represents the end of reproductive phase in women at age of 50. Menopausal symptoms or hormone replacement treatment (HRT) may influence women’s quality of life (QOL). Different health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scales are developed to demonstrate the effects of menopausal symptoms or treatment. The aim of this review is to identify the menopause-related measures and evaluate the psychometric properties of these scales.

Method Literature search using the keyword: “menopause” or “menopausal” or “perimenopausal” or “climacteric symptoms” or “vasomotor symptoms” AND “menopause-related quality of life measures” or “menopause-related quality of life instruments” or “menopausal health-related quality of life measures” or “menopausal health-related quality of life instruments” or “menopause-related health status measurement” or “menopause-related health functioning” AND “women”.

Results Total 5 menopause-related quality of life measures were identified: -the MENCAV Quality of Life Scale (MENCAV) -Menopause-specific QOL Questionnaire (MENQOL) -Menopause-specific QOL Questionnaire-Intervention (MENQOL-Intervention) -Menopausal Quality of Life Scale (MQOL) -Utian Quality of Life Scale (UQOL) All measurement scales have good internal consistency shown. Construct validity was reported in all measures. Known-groups validity was evaluated in MQOL and MENCAV. Content validity was shown in MQOL and UQOL by focus group meeting with menopausal women. Construct validity was reported in all measures. Convergent validity was reported in MQOL, MENCAV, UQOL and MENQOL-Intervention, the relationships between scores were evaluated. Discriminant validity was assessed in MENQOL. All measures reviewed either convergent or discriminant validity and no measure reviewed both. All measures except UQOL have reported responsiveness.

Conclusion MENCAV is the best measure and supposed to be the most updated one developed in 2008. This measure is not as popular as UQOL, MENQOL etc. It demonstrated the highest psychometric quality score in this review. Standardization of measurement scales for comparison of the menopausal symptoms and QOL can reduce the anxiety of participants who answer different questionnaires with same domain. Further research on extensive psychometric evaluation across ethnicities may be beneficial to menopausal women.