Prevalence of Depression and Balance Affection in Postmenopausal Women-A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Menopause is an essential and normal developmental process in a women’s life that may result in a wide variety of symptoms hence creating different problems. Psychological disorders particularly depression and balance affection are the most frequently observed public health problems of postmenopausal women requiring attention and even physiotherapy intervention. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of depression and balance affection in post-menopausal women. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 210 post-menopausal women aged between 45-60 years fulfilling the inclusion criteria. The subjects were selected by convenient sampling with prior consent and general assessment was taken. Gujarati version of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Berg Balance Scale (BBS) were used as outcome measures and data analysis was conducted for descriptive and analytical statistics. Results and Discussion: The mean value of age was 53.22 + 4.5 years. The mean score of depression for the subjects was 8.58 ± 3.59, which indicated mild depression. The results showed that 17.14% of women had minimal depression, 41.43% had mild depression, 32.86 had moderate depression and 8.57% had moderately severe depression. For balance affection mean value was 48.64±3.59, which indicated low fall risk. In balance affection, results showed that 97.63% had low fall risk, 2.38% had medium fall risk and 0% had high fall risk. Conclusion: A significant percentage of women in their menopause experienced depression and balance affection. This study showed that the majority of women included in the study had experienced mild depression and low fall risk for balance affection.