1. Menopause hormone therapy and complementary alternative medicine, quality of life, and racial/ethnic differences: the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN).
- Author
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Christmas M, Janssen I, Joffe H, Upchurch D, Santoro N, and Kravitz HM
- Subjects
- Female, Humans, Cross-Sectional Studies, Women's Health, Menopause psychology, Hormone Replacement Therapy, Quality of Life, Complementary Therapies
- Abstract
Objective: We hypothesized that, among midlife women with vasomotor and/or genitourinary symptoms of menopause, (1) hormone therapy (HT) compared with complementary alternative medicine (CAM) will be associated with higher quality of life (QoL), and (2) race/ethnicity would modify associations of HT and CAM with QoL., Methods: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of QoL in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation participants using HT, CAM, or both. Women ( n = 2,514) completed a CAM use questionnaire and QoL assessments at baseline and every 1 to 2 years from 2002 to 2013. Associations between QoL and treatment, adjusted for covariates, and race/ethnicity-by-treatment interactions were analyzed using linear and mixed effects regression models., Results: During 7.8 (SD, 2.9) years of follow-up, 732 women (29%) reported HT of 2.4 (SD, 1.7) years, and 798 women (32%) reported CAM use of 2.1 (SD, 1.4) years. Overall, neither HT nor CAM was associated with QoL. However, the treatment-by-race/ethnicity interaction was significant for self-reported QoL ( P = 0.034 at baseline, P = 0.044 longitudinal). Among White women, self-reported QoL was higher in HT-only users than in those who used neither ( P = 0.030; d = 0.11; 95% confidence interval, 0.01-0.21). In contrast, Black women using HT only had lower self-reported QoL compared with Black women using neither ( P = 0.027; d = -0.21; 95% confidence interval, -0.40 to -0.02)., Conclusion: Comparisons between treatment type within each racial/ethnic group yielded significant differences in self-reported QoL. Clinicians should be aware of racial/ethnic differences in treatment preferences when counseling patients on treatment options for menopausal symptoms to provide optimal care., Video Summary: http://links.lww.com/MENO/B33 ., Competing Interests: Financial disclosure/conflicts of interest: Christmas reports Board of Trustees for The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), NAMS Scientific Program Committee, NAMS Editorial Board, Steering Committee for Core OutcoMes in MenopAuse (COMMA), Speaker Alliance Chicago and FDA Bone, Reproductive and Urologic Division (BRUDAC) Committee. Joffe receives grant support from the National Institutes of Health, Merck, and Pfizer. She serves/has served as a consultant to Bayer, Jazz, and Eisai. Her institution received funding from NeRRE/KaNDy and Que Oncology. Her spouse is an employee at Arsenal Biosciences and has equity in Merck. Santoro reports advisory board member for Astellas, Que Oncology, Amazon (Ember), and Menogenix Inc; consultant for Ansh Labs; NAMS Program Committee; past president Society for Reproductive Investigation; and nominating committee Endocrine Society. The other authors have nothing to disclose., (Copyright © 2022 by The North American Menopause Society.)
- Published
- 2022
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