Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Quality of Life (QoL) in perimenopausal women: A cross-sectional, community-based study from Ghana

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to assess the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on the quality of life (QoL) in menopausal women. The study further examines the moderating role of socio-demographic variables in the relationship between EI and QoL. Methods: This cross-sectional study, employed a multi-stage sampling technique to sample 260 perimenopausal women from the Kumasi Metropolis for the study. The Menopause-specific Quality of life Questionnaire and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire were used to collect data after the validation of the instrument. The World Health Organization’s definition for menopause was used as the base for the classification of menopausal status. Menopausal women with chronic physical and mental health conditions were excluded. Analyses were done using multivariate regression and HAYES process. Results: The mean age of participants was 48.9, SD of 3.9. Of the perimenopausal women 65.8% had a basic education and 38.5% of them were married. Our study found a significant relationship between EI and QoL (Wilks’ Lambda=.97, F (4, 249) =12.19, p = .007). Specifically, EI positively predicted the psychosocial dimension of QoL. Further analysis revealed that marital status (‘single’, ‘married’, ‘divorced’ and ‘deceased’) and educational level (‘basic’, ‘secondary’ and ‘tertiary level’) did not significantly moderate the relationship between EI and QoL. Age, however, significantly moderated the relationship between EI and the psychosocial dimension of QoL, (b = 0.92, CI95% 0.02 to 1.78). Conclusion: EI positively predicts psychosocial aspect of QoL in Ghanaian women during menopause. Thus, menopausal women with high level of emotional intelligence (EI) are less likely to experience some psychosocial menopause-related issues. Strategies to improve emotional intelligence of women should be put in place in Ghana and other sub-Saharan countries to help women manage negative outcomes of the menopause transition for improving their QoL. Journal of Health and Social Sciences 2021; 6,1:91-102 The Italian Journal for Interdisciplinary Health and Social Development 92 INTRODUCTION Menopause occurs when ovarian follicular function losses its purpose resulting in a halt of menstrual period in 12 consecutive months, thereby preventing the woman from becoming pregnant naturally [1]. The menopause transition either occurs naturally or because of medical interferences such as disease, surgery, or chemotherapy [2, 3]. The age range for the occurrence of menopause is not the same globally, even though the transition is universal [4]. Dieting, lifestyle, and environmental differences may account for the age variability of this physiological process within and among women [5]. During menopause, physical, psychosocial, and other social changes may occur, thus affecting these middle-aged women. Changes during menopause include disturbance in sleep patterns, problems with menstrual flow, and changes in vaginal functions resulting in diminished interest for sexual activity, mood swings, hot flushes and night sweat [6]. Osteoporosis and higher heart disease risk have been described, which may affect psychosocial functioning of menopausal and post-menopausal women, as well as their Quality of Life (QoL) [7]. In case of certain physical health complications, the psychosocial consequences may seriously affect their daily living activities, by compromising the QoL [8–10]. QoL has been defined by the World Health Organization as the “individuals’ perceptions of their position in life in the context of the cultural and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards, and concerns” [11]. In general, scholars have found that the most significant changes in these women concerned the physical and psychosocial domains of the QoL [12]. However, some studies reported no adverse changes in QoL among menopausal women [13]. The changes associated with menopause can be a barrier to the accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, whose target is safeguarding ‘healthy lives and encourage well-being for all at all ages’ [14]. Some medical and psychosocial interventions have been put in place to fight the negative outcomes associated with menopause, yet their effectiveness has been proved only for some limited aspects such as the physical, Competing interests none declared Copyright © 2021 Esther Addae et al. Edizioni FS Publishers This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. See http:www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Cite this article as: Addae E, Ofosuhene-Mensah JK. Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Quality of Life (QoL) in perimenopausal women: A cross-sectional, community-based study from Ghana. J Health Soc Sci. 2021;6(1):91-102 TAKE-HOME MESSAGE Emotional intelligence is positively related to psychosocial aspect of quality of life in perimenopausal women in Ghana. Received: 05/07/2020 Accepted: 10/02/2021 Published Online: 15/02/2021 DOI 10.19204/2021/emtn8 Journal of Health and Social Sciences 2021; 6,1:91-102 The Italian Journal for Interdisciplinary Health and Social Development 93 vasomotor, and sexual ones [15, 16]. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a well-known construct of positive psychology that has been associated with a variety of individual and social resources, such as resilience, positive self-evaluation, and social support [17]. Only a few studies have shown the positive impact of EI on menopausal women’s QoL [18–20], but only on physical, psychological, and social domains of QoL [20]. Furthermore, previous studies on this issue were carried out in clinical settings (i.e., hospitals or clinics). Unfortunately, in Ghana women with menopause-associated problems present to the hospital very rarely. For this reason, community-based studies on this topic in Sub-Saharan countries could be useful. Some demographic characteristics including age, marital status and level of education, tend to influence the QoL of menopausal women. Indeed, the onset of menopause at an earlier age tend to affect QoL more negatively [21], whereas women who are married and with higher levels of education tend to cope better with menopausal-related symptoms, thereby having a better QoL [22, 23]. Some studies showed different levels of emotional intelligence with regards to age, marital status, and level of education. More specifically, EI increases with age [24], being married [25] and having high educational levels [26]. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze how EI can affect QoL, and the moderating role of age, marital status, and educational level on this relationship, in menopausal women living in an urban area of Ghana.