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Copyright of General Medicine & Health Sciences / Medycyna Ogólna i Nauki o Zdrowiu is the property of Witold Chodzki Institute of Rural Medicine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: The changes that occur in a woman's body during the perimenopausal period may influence feelings of attractiveness and perception of status in an intimate relationship, which may play a role in overall sexual satisfaction. Aim of the study: The present study aimed to analyze the influence of selected perimenopausal symptoms on the perception of satisfaction with sexual life in urban and rural women. Material and methods: This study included 224 women from urban areas and 106 women from rural areas who were using general practice services. Inclusion criteria were women who had not menstruated for 2-5 years. The measures used were the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) and the Sexual Quality of Life-Female questionnaire (SQoL-F). Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between the severity of perimenopausal symptoms and satisfaction with sexual life. Results: A greater proportion of urban women reported symptoms in the perimenopausal period than rural women. Statistically significant correlations were observed for irritability (P = 0.03) and sexual problems (P = 0.01). However, rural women reported a greater degree of symptom severity. There was a statistically significant difference in severity of somatic and psychological symptoms between urban and rural women. In urban women, the average score for general satisfaction with their sexual life was 62 ± 19.96, whereas the average score for rural women was slightly less, 59 ± 23.56. A statistically significant inverse relationship was observed between the severity of perimenopausal symptoms and quality of sexual life, with values of Spearman's rank correlation coefficients ranging from -0.490 to -0.064. Conclusions: Urban or rural residence had a slight influence on the frequency and severity of perimenopausal symptoms, and severity of symptoms had a significant influence on women's satisfaction with their sexual life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Research on the meaning of health and health behaviors is important for the development of health education programmes which should be tailored to the needs of patients. Objective. The aim of the study is to determine whether the place of residence and age have an impact on health behaviours and the perception of health by women past menopause. Materials and method. A survey method and three research instruments were employed: authors' questionnaire, the Health Behaviour Inventory and the Health Criteria List by Juczyński, and the Kupperman Index. The study was carried out among a sample of 102 women after menopause hospitalised in a hospital in eastern Poland. Results. The overall health behaviour indicator (HBI) in the study group was found to reach an average value of 80.1±12.7points. A higher HBI indicator was found to be characteristic of urban rather than rural residents; however, there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05). The age of respondents did not differentiate statistically their health behaviours (p>0.05). Women who reported their last menstruation before the age of 50 obtained higher results in the dimension of health practices (HPs) than those whose last menstruation ceased after the age of 50 (p<0.05). The respondents attributed the highest importance to health, understood as a property, a state and a goal. Statistically significant differences were observed in the importance of the statement according to which health is a process of "being able to work without tension and stress", as the respondents from urban areas assigned to it a higher average weight than those from rural areas (p< 0.05). Conclusions. A higher overall HBI, as well as indicators for particular categories, were characteristic of women from urban areas. Age did not significantly differentiate the women's health behaviours. Rural residents were dominant in the group of women who rated their health to be very good or good. The respondents attributed the highest importance to health understood as a property, state and goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. A sample of 95 Polish postmenopausal women after mastectomy were studied with the objective of describing Health Behaviour Indicators (HBIs) among the participants. The notion of health, the subjective evaluation of the participants' health condition and their lifestyle before cancer diagnosis and at present wewre examined. Materials and method. Two data collection instruments were used: a questionnaire developed by the research team, and the Health Behaviour Inventory (HBI) - a standardised questionnaire developed by Juczynski. The HBIs four main dimensions: proper nutritional habits (PNH), preventive behaviours (PB), health practices (HPs), and positive mental attitude (PMA) were examined. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed with the post-hoc test (multiple comparisons conducted Turkey's test). Results. Well-being was the most often indicated description of the health notions of the women surveyed. The majority of women (75; 78.9%) believed that they led a healthy lifestyle. The overall HBI, on average, was 85.7 out of 120. Specifically, HPs was the highest health behaviour enacted (3.75 Standard Deviation [SD] 1.59), followed by PB (3.66; 0.69 SD). In the bivariate analysis, married (87.2; 12.7 SD) and widowed (89.8; 7.9 SD) women reported higher scores than those who were unmarried (76.7; 14.6 SD) and divorced (83.6; 12.5 SD) (p < 0.05). Conclusions. HBI of postmenopausal women after mastectomy is high, which may suggest that mastectomy at the postmenopausal state enforces pro-healthy HBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of study was to investigate if and to what extent pregnancy affects sexual satisfaction of women., Material and Method: A group of 130 pregnant women were surveyed.Ihe women were seen for check-ups in a randomly chosen out-patient clinic for women over the period of 6 months in 2007. They responded to a questionnaire constructed for the purpose of the survey., Results: More than half respondents (52.3%) presented positive attitude towards sexuality associating sex with pleasure; the rest (40.7%) perceived having sex as dutiful activity to their partners. Negative experience caused by sexual activity was mentioned by 6.9% respondents, having sex was annoying for them. The freguency of sexual contacts was evaluated as too small by 98 (75.3%) and 82 (63.1%) respondents in the first and second tnmesters respectively. Satisfactory intimate relationships before pregnancy were reported by 86.1% women however in the first trimester of pregnancy 68.5% women had highly satisfactory sex with their partners which increased by 17.6% in the second trimester, Conclusions: 1. Pregnancy decreases sexual satisfaction of women during the first Trimester of pregnancy. 2. Decreased satisfaction of having sex during the first trimester of pregnancy results from adaptative processes that are manifested as lowered mood experienced at that time. 3. In the second trimester when the pregnant woman begins to feel better, her satisfaction of having sex improves.

Unlabelled: The problem of effect of the environment on human reproduction has been in the focus of researchers' interest for many years., Objective: To examine the relationship between semen density in males with reproduction problems, and their age, living and working conditions., Material and Method: The study covered 224 males with reproduction problems. The study had a prospective character and was conducted in three stages - the first stage was carried out using the questionnaire devised by the authors; the second and the third stages consisted in the examination and evaluation of male semen density. Statistical analysis was used to search for the relationship between these groups and variables adopted in the study, i.e. age, occupation performed, place of residence, self-reported housing conditions and material standard, reporting by the males in the study of arduousness of work or health hazards perceived by the males examined, and duration of employment in such conditions., Results: The males in the study were divided into three groups according to their semen density. Group I (20 × 10(6) mln/ml or more) included 62 (27.7%) respondents, Group II (below 20 × 10(6) mln/ml) covered 121 males (54.0%), while Group III (only single spermatozoa or none) - 41 males (18.3%). Male semen density are significantly correlated with men's ages and jobs as well as the general evaluations of the jobs held by the men (p<0.05). No significant relationship is observed between living conditions, arduous work conditions and occupational hazards as perceived by males, or duration of employment in such conditions, and male semen density (p>0.05)., Conclusions: The results obtained encourage continuation of the studies and cover a larger group of males with reproduction problems.

Purpose: To establish if and to what extend women find the time of waiting for an elective gynecological operation difficult, how it is manifested and what the conditioning factors are., Material and Method: The investigation was carried out in the group of 272 women who during two months of 2008 were admitted to one of the four selected hospitals for an elective gynecological operation. A questionnaire has been designed solely for the purpose of the pilot study 25 women participated in the study., Results: The respondents reported 717 concerns that occurred within the period of waiting for the surgery; the most frequent among them were fear of being diagnosed with cancer (27.6%), postoperative pain (26.7%) postoperative complications (19.1%). More than half of the respondents (58.5%) waited for the surgery for 2-3 months or longer. Every fifth woman complained about problems with being admitted to hospital and every fourth woman expected emotional support from medical staff. 91.2% respondents had searched for additional information about their disease., Conclusions: 1. Waiting for elective gynecological operation may create a difficult situation for many women what was confirmed by a vast number and nature of their concerns, frequent expectations of emotional support and search for additional information about their disease. 2. Problems with being admitted to a health care institution and long period of waiting for the operation (> 1 month) are quite common and these factors may contribute to further worsening of the quality of patients' life during the preoperative period. 3. Demographic parameters assumed for the purpose of this analysis do not differentiate the parameters tested, with the exception of the place of inhabitance factor that turned out to be associated with the expectations of emotional support. 4. The degree of hospital reference significantly differentiates tested parameters.