The Menopause Rating Scale (MRS): reliability of scores of menopausal complaints

To analyze the reliability of scores of the recently developed self-administrative Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) in a follow-up investigation of a cohort after approximately one and a half years, and to look for possible reasons for variation.

A follow-up investigation of a random sample of an initially representative survey of German women (aged 40-60), which dated back to early 1996, was performed in late 1997. A subsample of 306 women participated. The MRS scale, a self-administrative standardized questionnaire, was applied with additional, mainly health-related, questions.

The MRS results at baseline and follow-up were significantly correlated (r = 0.60). The majority of women remained in the category 'no or mild menopausal symptoms'. The kappa statistics showed significant agreement of the various subscales (total, somatic, psychological and urogenital scales) between the two measurements. Neither age nor social factors contributed to a change of score according to a multiple regression analysis. Some, but not all, health-related variables showed a slight association with change of score, such as satisfaction with health in general and, specifically, the presence of hypertension, cardiac and gastrointestinal diseases. No overall relation to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was found during this observation period.

The majority of women demonstrated sufficient reliability of MRS scores. Changes in the score after one and a half years were little influenced by the variables tested, except some health conditions such as cardiac disease. It should be stressed that the MRS has the benefit of being a self-administrative tool for the assessment of climacteric complaints with convenient applicability, and representative reference data have been collected in a German population.