Statistical factor analysis and cluster analysis in the etiology of climacteric symptoms

Factor analysis and cluster analysis were applied to a set of 17 climacteric symptoms data obtained from 194 premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Six distinct factors were extracted and the women were divided into 7 groups by hierarchical cluster analysis in terms of their factor scores. Only one representative factor was identified in 3 groups out of the 7. These 3 groups including 87 women were tentatively designated as vasomotor symptom, neurotic, and sensory disturbance groups. These results confirmed statistically that at least 3 simple etiological factors exist among climacteric symptoms.