title: MsFLASH participants' priorities for alleviating menopausal symptoms.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe self-reported menopausal symptom priorities and their association with demographics and other symptoms among participants in an intervention trial for vasomotor symptoms (VMS).
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study embedded in the MsFLASH 02 trial, a three-by-two factorial design of yoga vs. exercise vs. usual activity and omega-3-fatty acid vs. placebo. At baseline, women (n = 354) completed hot flush diaries, a card sort task to prioritize symptoms they would most like to alleviate, and standardized questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most common symptom priorities were: VMS (n = 322), sleep (n = 191), concentration (n = 140), and fatigue (n = 116). In multivariate models, women who chose VMS as their top priority symptom (n = 210) reported significantly greater VMS severity (p = 0.004) and never smoking (p = 0.012), and women who chose sleep as their top priority symptom (n = 100) were more educated (p ≤ 0.001) and had worse sleep quality (p < 0.001). ROC curves identified sleep scale scores that were highly predictive of ranking sleep as a top priority symptom.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among women entering an intervention trial for VMS and with relatively low prevalence of depression and anxiety, VMS was the priority symptom for treatment. A card sort may be a valid tool for quickly assessing symptom priorities in clinical practice and research.
authors.affiliation: a Science of Nursing Care, School of Nursing, Indiana University , Indianapolis , IN ;
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.affiliation: b Biobehavioral Nursing, University of Washington , Seattle , WA ;
authors.forename: N F
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Woods
authors.affiliation: a Science of Nursing Care, School of Nursing, Indiana University , Indianapolis , IN ;
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Otte
authors.affiliation: c Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center , Seattle , WA ;
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Guthrie
authors.affiliation: c Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center , Seattle , WA ;
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hohensee
authors.affiliation: d Group Health Research Institute , Seattle , WA ;
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Newton
authors.affiliation: e Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry , Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute , Boston , MA ;
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Joffe
authors.affiliation: f Center for Women's Mental Health; Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry Clinical Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital , Boston , MA ;
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: g Division of Research , Kaiser Permanent Medical Program of Northern California , Oakland , CA ;
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sternfeld
authors.affiliation: h Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology , School of Medicine, Indiana University , Indianapolis , IN ;
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: i Departments of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Epidemiology , University of Washington School of Medicine , Seattle , WA ;
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.affiliation: j Department of Preventive Medicine , University of California San Diego , San Diego , CA , USA.
authors.forename: A Z
authors.initials: AZ
authors.lastname: LaCroix
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D001288:Attention; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D005221:Fatigue / Q000628:therapy*; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3 / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D019584:Hot Flashes / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D057240:Patient Preference; D012372:ROC Curve; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015013:Yoga
chemical_list: D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3
keywords: COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING; FATIGUE; MENOPAUSE; SLEEP DISTURBANCES; SYMPTOMS; VASOMOTOR SYMPTOMS