Are individual or work-related factors associated with work outcomes in menopausal women?

Griffiths, Amanda and Hardy, Claire and Maclennan, Sarah and Hunter, Myra S. (2017) Are individual or work-related factors associated with work outcomes in menopausal women? In: 11th European Congress on Menopause & Andropause, 2017-05-22 - 2017-05-24, Amsterdam, Holland.

Abstract

Many women are now in employment during their menopause. Evidence suggests that although most women do not take absence or perceive their job performance to be affected by their menopause, some women do. It is therefore important to understand what factors might be associated with such outcomes. This paper explores individual and work-related factors and their associations with menopause-related work absence and perceived work performance impact. 896 menopausal, working women from 10 organisations completed an electronic survey. Data included individual-related factors (sociodemographic: age, education level, dependents, level of physical activity, psychological distress; menopausal symptoms: perceived bothersomeness, duration and frequency of hot flushes), work-related factors (physical and psychosocial work environment, line manager factors: age, gender, symptom disclosure; and job satisfaction), menopause-related absence and self-perceived job performance impairment (dependent variables). Univariate and multivariate logistic and linear regression analyses were performed to examine the extent these variables significantly predicted the dependent variables of interest. Results showed the factors significantly associated with menopause-related absence were largely work-related than individual-related (accounting for 35% and 13% of variance respectively). In contrast, the factors that predicted performance detriments were largely individual-related rather than work-related (accounting for 16% and 19% of variance respectively). These findings suggest that both individual and work-related factors may be associated with work outcomes and that researchers, employers and policy makers should take a multi-perspective approach. This may be more effective in helping those women who find menopausal transition impacts negatively on their working life.