The impact of a specialist-led digital health application on menopause symptoms in the workplace: A single-arm, longitudinal evaluation

Objectives

The aim of the study was to evaluate the change in menopause symptoms and work impairment among a cohort of UK working women who utilised an employer-provided digital menopause health application offering education and personalised support.

Study design

We adopted a retrospective, single-arm, longitudinal approach by analysing data from 11,870 users of the Peppy Health menopause application. Users reported their menopause symptoms and work impairment on day 0 and after 90 and 180 days of application use.

Main outcome measures

Menopause symptoms were measured by the Menopause Rating Scale, while work impairment was measured by a single question.

Results

A significant decrease in the severity of menopause symptoms was observed in users across menopause stages, except for premenopausal users who saw lower severity and no change over time. Improvement in menopause symptoms was positively associated with the degree of application engagement. Work impairment also significantly reduced over time for menopausal users, and a significant association was observed between a reduction in menopause symptoms and a decline in work impairment.

Conclusions

Our findings show that engaging with a digital menopause application is associated with an improvement in menopause symptoms, which lends initial support for the use of personalised digital solutions to help working women through the menopause transition.