DEPRESSION AMONG WOMEN DURING THE MENOPAUSE TRANSITION, A CASE STUDY IN THE NAVRONGO MUNICIPALITY IN THE UPPER EAST REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of depression among women during the menopause transition in the Kasena–Nankana East Municipality. The study design was crosssectional descriptive one, 390 women were randomly sampled from 26 communities, and 26 primary care providers. The target population were all women living within the Municipality and were 40 years and above. The data collection instruments; for the quantitative data-structured questionnaire were used for the women and for the qualitative data in-depth interviews were used for the health officials as the key informants, the quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS version 16 and qualitative data was analyzed based on the themes that emanated from the key informants. The analyzed data were presented into frequency counts, percentages, and Chi Square test for the associations. On the personal characteristics of respondents, majority (34%) felt within the age group of 60-69 years, the Kasenas formed the major ethnic group (43.3%), Christians were the majority (74.9%),most of them possessed low level of education representing (72%), the Self-employed group was 30.7 % forming the majority, majority were also married (47.9%). The prevalence of depression from the study revealed that 65% experience mood swings ,40% experience the feeling of elation and high self-confident, 49% reported feeling anxious, with the experience of recurrent ideas were 45% , 52% indicated little interest in doing things, with regards to hopelessness 40% was recorded, insomnia was 46% ,anorexia was 51% and 6% experienced suicidal ideations. A significant relationship was observed to have existed between the marital status of the respondents and depression (p = 0.005The results indicated high prevalence of depression in the study area among menopausal women. That is, 65% suffered mild to severe mood swings, 49% suffered mild to severe anxiety and 94% all others (sadness, insomnia and anorexia nervosa). The Health professionals recommended medication, counseling and psychotherapy as part of the intervention strategies. The Government, Ministry of health and all related partners should ensure that drug and other non- drug consumables are always available in the various health facilities.