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Excerpt
Women (= 792) aged 44—56 recruited from two sources—women registered with the University Family Medicine Clinic (n = 446) and from random telephone dialing (n = 346)—were included in this study. The two groups of women were comparable in age, level of education, and marital and work status. The mean age was 49.1. About 60% had only primary level of education or less, 92% were mar-ried, and half were housewives.
The interview was carried out over the telephone. Among other questions, the respondents were asked to respond to a checklist of 22 symptoms ex-perienced in the past 2 weeks. The most prevalent complaints were joint pain or stiffness (38%), back pain (37.5%), headache (34%). insomnia (30%), feeling of nervousness (29%), stomach discomfort (25%), dizziness (24%), depression (23%), lack of energy (20%), lack of concentration (20%), and hot flushes (20%). The respondents were also asked four separate questions as to whether anyone close to them had been seriously ill, died, needed extensive care from them, or caused them special worry in the past year. The proportion of women reporting the events were 18%, 19%, 16%, and 28%, respectively. A higher proportion of women report-ing these worries complained of the symptoms. There were highly statistically significant associa-tions between having someone close seriously ill and depression, stomach discomfort, insomnia, and lack of concentration (p < 0.001). Having someone causing them special worry was strongly associated with depression, stomach discomfort, joint pain, and lack of concentration (p < 0.001). Having someone die was strongly associated with lack of concentration (p < 0.001). while demand on their care was strongly associated with joint pain (p < 0.001). These preliminary analyses show the strong correlation between stress with depression and health in Chinese women in mid-life.
