HUMOR, ATENÇÃO CONCENTRADA E QUALIDADE DE VIDA EM MULHERES CLIMATÉRICAS

Abstract

Every year we have a global increase in life expectancy and consequently, a constellation of repercussions on health, principally in what refers to chronic-degenerative diseases. Women at present are estimated to pass one third of their lives after menopause, a troublesome phase that begins normally at forty years of age and ends around sixty-six. In this period, women present various characteristic signs and symptoms that compromise quality of life, like for example vascular-motor changes, genital-urinary atrophy, and disturbance of humor and sleep and on the long-term osteoporosis. Since more or less forty years ago, the signs and symptoms of climacteric have been treated with reposition of estrogen and progesterone. The results of hormonal therapy have been subject to discussion throughout the world, with certain studies showing favorable results and others showing unfavorable ones concerning health, humor and cognitive functioning. The present study evaluated two groups with eight menopausal women; the experimental group had hormonal therapy while the control group had no treatment. Both were evaluated on humor and concentration before and after a six-month interval, and participated in an interview on daily life activities, with the intention to seek a relation between biological, psychological and social factors that in interaction may influence the quality of life of women in this phase of life. The results suggest that the women that had hormonal therapy reported an improvement in climacteric symptoms, principally the vasomotor symptoms, libido, disposition and humor. The participants that did not have hormonal therapy worsened on scores of humor during the studied interval and neither group presented changes on test-scores of attention. The information on the daily life activities, suggests that work is an important factor in social inclusion that should be recognized as an instrument in the maintenance of self-esteem of aging persons who could feel excluded from activities that before had characterized their social position.