Comparison of the Quality of Life between Users and Non-Users of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Thai Women with Menopause-Related Symptoms Aged 45 Years Old and Above
Mananya Silpakit MD*, Pongrak Boonyanurak MD*
Affiliation : * Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Phramongkutklao Hospital and College of Medicine, Bangkok, Thailand
Objective : To compare the quality of life between users and non-users of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
in Thai women aged 45 years old and above who had menopause-related symptoms.
Material and Method: This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Phramongkutklao Hospital. Women aged from 45 years old and experiencing menopause-related symptoms were invited.
Self-administered questionnaires of patients’ characteristics and the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL)
questionnaire were used to evaluate the quality of life (score range 1 to 8 from better to worse). Main outcome measure
was the difference of the quality of life between the CAM users and CAM non-users.
Results : A total number of 204 women were enrolled and equally grouped into CAM users and CAM non-users. Mean age
was 56.45 years old. The present study revealed that there was no difference in the quality of life between the women in
the two groups in all domains (mean MENQOL ± SD = 2.18±1.15 for CAM users, and mean MENQOL ± SD = 2.01±0.88
for CAM non-users, p-value = 0.593). Almost all CAM types showed associations to lower quality of life, especially the
energy therapy group (p-value = 0.019). Only the women who used mind-body interventions had higher quality of life,
although not significantly.
Conclusion : Overall, there was no statistical significant difference in quality of life between the CAM users and
non-users who had menopause-related symptoms. Additional studies are needed to evaluate other specific modalities of
CAM use.
Keywords : Menopause, menopause-related symptoms, Complementary and alternative medicine, Quality of life
