Livia Hornemann

Livia Hornemann

An extended Menopause Rating Scale II: A Retrospective Data Analysis

Aim

To discuss a statistically reasonable inclusion of additional symptoms in the Menopause Rating Scale II (MRS II).

Methods

Retrospective data analysis. The MRS II was extended with the parameters ‘changes in weight’, ‘headaches’, ‘skin changes’, ‘changes in hair growth’, ‘hair loss’, ‘changes in menstrual cycle’ and if therapy was desired. Data from 419 women seeking medical advice in our menopause clinic was collected between April 2009 and April 2017.  Cronbach´s alpha was used to measure internal consistency of the extended questionnaire.

Results

For the conventional MRS II (N = 340) the internal consistency measured with Cronbach´s alpha raised from 0.805 to 0.820 considering ‘changes in weight’ (N = 237), to 0.815 considering ‘headaches’ (N = 247) and to 0.815 considering ‘skin changes’ (N = 236). Cronbach´s alpha raised from 0.805 to 0.835 (N = 224) if these parameters were added all at once. Desire for therapy varied between 42.1 % (‘changes in hair growth’) and 60.6 % (‘hair loss’). Our data show a discrepancy between the severity of discomfort and the wish to treat the symptom for both, the conventional MRS II and the additional parameters

Conclusions

We suggest including the items ‘changes in weight’, ‘headaches’ and ‘skin changes’ in the MRS II as our results show even higher internal consistency with these symptoms and as wish for therapy was high.