The Australian women's Midlife Years (AMY) Study: Work experience and needs

Background: Menopause, which is the permanent cessation of ovarian function, affects every woman who lives to midlife, occurring in Australia at an average age of 51 years. The cardinal menopausal symptoms, hot flushes and night sweats (vasomotor symptoms; VMS), fragmented sleep, anxiety and low mood, and joint pain, are experienced by the majority (80%) of women, adversely affect women physically and emotionally, and are frequently debilitating. Presently, Australian women constitute almost half of the paid workforce, with a greater number of mature-aged workers (>55 years). Hence, over 40% of women aged 60 to 65 years still dealing with VMS, and vast numbers of women spend well over a decade with menopause potentially impacting their work performance and engagement. However, robust evidence as to how menopausal symptoms influence work performance and engagement is lacking, with the available data limited to women in paid employment, with no data for women in caring and volunteer roles. There is a compelling and urgent need for the conduct of a study of a nationally representative sample of Australian women aged 40 to 69 years to understand the impact of menopause on work performance and engagement. Methods: The AMY study is a national, cross-sectional study of women aged 40-69 years. To ensure participants ‘represent’ Australian women of this age, participants were recruited by the Roy Morgan Research Single Source database. This database is created by random sampling across all metropolitan and country electorates, with 50,000 new contacts each year. Recruitment matched population age and geographic distribution. The study was by web-based questionnaire with the only exclusion criterion being insufficient English proficiency to complete the online survey. The study will build a profile of the study sample from the data collected including demographics, self-reported height, weight and waist circumference; lifestyle behaviours including, smoking and alcohol use, partner status, financial security, household composition, current and past medical, gynaecological/reproductive history, MHT and prescription non-hormone therapy use. Menopausal status will be determined by a series of questions aligned to the published algorithm for menopause assessment. The study will also use a range of validated questionnaires, including the Work Ability Index. Objective: The PhD goals are to understand the impact of menopause on work performance/engagement in a nationally representative sample of 8000 women, 40-69 years, recruited by Prof Davis and Dr Islam This will include: I. the proportion of women in full and part time paid work, carer and volunteer roles; II. the association between menopause symptoms and self-assessed work performance in women in paid and unpaid work roles, including shift work, taking into account impact of psychosocial/economic circumstances. III. whether menopause symptoms are an independent barrier to work engagement; Overall significance: The proposed study is a key step towards in depth understanding the contemporary menopause experience of Australian women and provide valuable, real-world, insights into the impact of menopausal symptoms on women’s work performance and engagement., and will make a major contribution to women’s health, with a substantial socioeconomic impact beyond women’s health.