A long-term woman's health for near-menopause women

The objective of this study is to propose the use of a long-term styled diary on fundamental woman-specific information such as menstruation, and explore the possibility of its effectiveness on the health care of near-menopause women. A newly styled "ten-year woman's health note" had been developed on September, 1998 for near-menopause women to record menostruation and other health-related events. We announced a free test distribution of 200 copies of the hearth note on December, 1998 in a newspaper and received a request from 6,133 people. A questionnaire was distributed with the health note to 200 women aged about 40 years old on January, 1999. Another questionnaire was sent 6 months later with a different set of questions to those women. We received 183 replies (91.5%) for the first questionnaire and 164 replies (82.0%) for the second one. For the recording habit of menstruation 148 women answered constant recording, 23: sometimes, and 12: no recording (Table I). Recording method was 61: small diary, and 54: calendar, 18: house-keeping book, 13: personal journal, 12: notebook, 8: basal body temperature note, and 17: no answers. 124 women showed concerns on menstruation, while 59 showed no concern. We: confirmed that many near-menopause women recorded menstruation events regularly. The needs and usefulness of a long-term specialized health note was suggested.