Learning Needs Assessment of Postmenopausal Women in a Rural Community, Karnataka, India

Introduction Every woman uniquely experiences menopause. The problems can be either well managed or prevented if a woman is well informed. Healthy women are productive and establish healthy families. It is important therefore to find out what a woman needs to learn about menopause. Objective To determine the learning needs of the women at the postmenopausal period. Materials and Methods The study adopted an exploratory approach using a cross-sectional design. The setting was selected conveniently. The investigator took a simple random sampling technique. Demographic proforma and learning needs assessment opinionnaire were used to collect data. Results Most of the subjects (28.8%) were belonging to 51 to 55 years of age. The majority of the subjects (75%) attained menopause between the age of 41 and 50 years. More than third-fourth of the subjects (77.5%) were of a nuclear family. Eighty percent of the subjects were married. Around 68.8% had secondary education; 71.3% were housewives. Subjects had significant learning needs in the areas of "lifestyle modification" (mean % = 44.42) and "sexual health" (mean % = 35.75). Eighty-one percent felt that they needed to give more importance to their children than their health. Thirty-nine subjects ranked "prevention of bone loss and joint pain" as their first preference of learning, 19 ranked "mental health" as their seventh preference; and 20 subjects ranked "sexual health" as their eighth preference of education. Conclusion There is a need to train women on lifestyle modification and the promotion of sexual health during the postmenopausal period. They do need information on the enhancement of physical and mental health.