Developing an instrument to measure climacteric symptoms among Korean and Japanese women.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to construct a measurement instrument for climacteric symptoms among Korean and Japanese women.


METHODS
From Dec. 1st of 2003 to March 30th of 2004, in-depth interviews were made with 26 women (15 in Jinju, Korea and 11 in Nagasaki, Japan) aged from 45 to 59 years who had not taken hormone replacement therapy to relieve the climacteric symptoms. A draft questionnaire with 45 items was constructed on the basis of the interview data and literature review. Three obstetricians, three PhDs in nursing science, and a chief nurse who was exclusively in charge of the climacteric management, examined the draft questionnaire to evaluate content validity. After deletions 39 items remained for a preliminary questionnaire. A survey was conducted by using a convenient sampling method in Jinju of Korea and Nagasaki of Japan during the period from April 1st, 2004 to July 10th, 2005.


RESULTS
Factor analysis identified 4 factors, which were "mental and psychological symptoms", "physical symptoms", "loss of autonomic nervous system symptoms", "sexual symptoms". These four factors explained 46.9% of total variance.


CONCLUSIONS
The results demonstrated that climacteric symptom scale was multidimensional, and the reliability and validity of the scale was supported.
Song
AeRi
A
Department of Nursing, Jinju Health College, Sang Bong Seo Dong, 1142 Jinju city, Gyeong Sang Nam Do, South of Korea. jinjumam@korea.com
Oishi
Kazuyo
K
Suh
Euy Hoon
EH
Miyahara
Harumi
H
Nakajima
Hisayoshi
H
Nakao
Yuko
Y
Araki
Miyuki
M
Yamasaki
Makiko
M
D002979:Climacteric / Q000208:ethnology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007723:Korea; D008875:Middle Aged; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires