142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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311147
Midlife Women's Symptom Index as a Screening Tool for Risk Symptoms of Cardiac-related Disease

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 : 1:10 PM - 1:30 PM

Youjeong Kang, MPH, RN , Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Timothy Sowicz, MSN, NP-C , Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Ok Kyung Ham, RN MPH PhD CHES , Department of Nursing, Inha University, Incheon, South Korea
Wonshik Chee, PhD , School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Eun-Ok Im, PhD CNS MPH RN FAAN , School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Introduction: Awareness of cardiac-related disease (CD) as a leading cause of mortality among women has been increasing and is of great concern to the public’s health. The purpose of this study is to examine the scores on the Midlife Women’s Symptom Index (MSI) between women with and without CD in order to explore the possibility of using the MSI as a self-screening tool for risk symptoms of CD.

Method: This is a secondary analysis study using a cross-sectional Internet survey of menopausal symptoms. The instrument for data collection was the MSI, which includes 73 menopausal symptoms. The MSI has three subscales which measure physical, psychological, and psychosomatic symptoms. Severity of menopausal symptoms is measured using a Likert scale.

Results: For the purpose of this inquiry, CD was defined as having a diagnosis of hypertension or hyperlipidemia or both. In women with CD (N = 108), 96% reported receiving health advice from health care providers (p=0.002) and 65% reporting being healthy (p=.003). The distribution of women with and without CD varied significantly by race/ethnicity (p=0.004). Women with CD reported significantly higher severity MSI scores on the physical and psychosomatic subscales than those without CD while without and with controlling for significant demographic variables.

Conclusion: The finds support that the MSI could be used as a self-screening tool for risk symptoms of CD in women.

Acknowledgement: This is a secondary analysis of the data from a larger study that was funded by the NIH/NINR (1R01NR010568-01) entitled "Ethnic-Specific Midlife Women's Attitudes Toward Physical Activity.”

Learning Areas:

Biostatistics, economics
Chronic disease management and prevention
Diversity and culture

Learning Objectives:
Discuss how the Midlife Women’s Symptom Index (MSI) among midlife women could be used as a screening tool for risk symptoms of cardiac-related disease

Keyword(s): Heart Disease, Screening Instruments

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I was a leading author.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.