Network analysis of patient-reported complaints in climacteric syndrome: a single-center study
Su-Ji Choi1, Bongsu Kang2, Chang-Eop Kim3
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Korean Medicine, Dong-eui University, 52-57 Yangjeong-ro, Busanjin-gu, Busan, 47227, Republic of Korea.
Background:
This study analyzed medical records of patients with climacteric syndrome at a Korean medicine hospital and investigated the interrelationships among their symptoms using network analysis.
Methods:
A retrospective chart review was conducted on 81 women (aged 45-60 years) who visited a women's health clinic between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021. Network analysis was performed on unstructured text from first-visit medical records to identify symptom patterns and compute centrality indices.
Results:
The most common symptoms were 'pain', 'hot flush', 'facial blushing', 'fatigue', and 'sleep disorder'. Among them, pain and hot flush showed high node strength, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality, which indicated their central role in symptom co-occurrence. Although there were no statistically significant differences in the frequency of symptoms between the premenopausal and postmenopausal groups, variations in symptom centrality and modular analysis results before and after menopause were noted, emphasizing the importance of detailed symptom analysis in clinical settings.
Conclusions:
By analyzing medical records of patients with climacteric syndrome, this study clarified symptom patterns in menopausal women, providing data for targeted and stage-specific treatments.
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