Women's needs for CAM information to manage menopausal symptoms

Area of Science:

• Women's Health
• Integrative Medicine
• Health Information Seeking Behavior

Background:

• Menopausal symptom management often involves complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
• Women face challenges in accessing reliable information about CAM treatments for menopause.
• Understanding women's information needs is crucial for effective health communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify the specific information needs of women concerning CAM treatment options for alleviating menopausal symptoms.
• To explore women's preferences for information formats, sources, and trustworthiness regarding menopause management.

Main Methods:

• A survey was distributed to women via notices in family physicians' offices and a women's health center.
• Questionnaires assessed preferred topics, information formats, sources, search experiences, and criteria for trustworthy information.
• Data were collected from 413 women regarding their information-seeking habits for menopausal symptoms.

Main Results:

• Women reported difficulties in finding timely, relevant, and high-quality information on CAM for menopause.
• Key interests included the menopausal process, conventional and CAM treatments, and treatment safety.
• While many preferred evidence-based data, a significant portion also valued personal accounts, indicating diverse information preferences.

Conclusions:

• Women feel inadequately informed to make safe decisions about CAM for menopausal symptom relief.
• Family physicians are identified as trusted sources, playing a vital role in disseminating information.
• Providing evidence-based brochures and curated personal accounts via print or web platforms is recommended to meet women's needs.