Korean J Fam Pract. 2018; 8(1): 87-92  https://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2018.8.1.87
Relationship between Early Menopause and Mental Health Problems
In Young Choi1, Young Eun Choi2,*, Hyun Ryung Nam1, Jae Woo Lee2, Eun Chul Park3, Sung In Jang3
1Department of Family Medicine, Severance Hospital, Seoul; 2Department of Family Medicine, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang; 3Department of Preventive Medicine, Severance Hospital, Seoul, Korea
Young Eun Choi
Tel: +82-31-900-0114, Fax: +82-31-900-0149
E-mail: yechoimd@gmail.com
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7657-7776
Received: March 13, 2017; Revised: July 24, 2017; Accepted: August 3, 2017; Published online: February 20, 2018.
© The Korean Academy of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background: Interest in menopause and mental health problems is increasing. Several studies have been conducted on the relationship between menopause and mental health problems, but only a few studies were conducted in Koreans. Studies that compare mental health in early menopause are especially rare. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the association between early menopause and mental health in Korean women using data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES).
Methods: This study was based on data from the 4th to 6th KNHANES (2007–2013) and 9,555 postmenopausal women. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between early menopause and mental health problems.
Results: The early menopause group showed higher stress intensity than the normal menopause group, but no significant difference in level of depression was observed.
Conclusion: Stress intensity was higher among the Korean women who had early menopause than among those who did not have early menopause (odds ratio, 1.26; P=0.043).
Keywords: Menopause; Premature Menopause; Stress; Depression
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