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Table 1 Comparison of characteristics of menopause-related calls across three time periods

From: Long term impact of the WHI studies on information-seeking and decision-making in menopause symptoms management: a longitudinal analysis of questions to a medicines call centre

Characteristics

QMH

ML

p-value

Note

Time 1

Time 2

Time 3

(n = 742)

(n = 126)

(n = 961)

Callers age, years

0.004

Comparison, ΔMean (95% CI)

Mean (SD)

56.5 (9.6)

59.3 (8.5)

57.7 (10.5)

 

Time 1 vs. Time 2: -2.80 (-5.07, -0.54)

Time 1 vs. Time 3: -1.20 (-2.35, -0.05)

Callers gender, %

0.611

 

Male

4.0

4.0

3.2

  

Female

94.2

95.2

96.8

  

Patients age, years

0.008

Comparison, ΔMean (95% CI)

Mean (SD)

57.1 (9.7)

59.9 (8.9)

58.0 (10.2)

 

Time 1 vs. Time 2: -2.80 (-5.04, -0.56)

Relationship of caller, %

0.006a

 

Self

89.1

88.9

95.1

  

Partner

2.2

4.0

1.9

  

Client (carer/patient) a

2.0

-

1.7

  

Child/friend/other family a

2.8

1.6

0.8

  

Parent a

1.2

0.8

0.5

  

Call motivation, %

 < 0.001

 

Inadequate information b

14.2

9.5

38.5

  

Second opinion

14.7

8.7

24.5

  

Worrying symptom

22.2

4.8

19.7

  

Conflicting information

7.8

0.8

8.8

  

Other

13.5

1.6

6.8

  

Media b

7.4

66.7

1.3

  

Enquiry type, %c

 < 0.001

 

Side effects d

24.8

15.9

23.2

  

Pragmatics of use

16.2

14.1

11.8

  

Treatment/prophylaxis

13.4

8.2

8.5

  

Risk/benefit b,d

12.7

46.5

17.4

  

Logistics and miscellaneous

12.7

8.2

9.4

  

Mechanism/profile

12.5

4.7

14.4

  

Interaction b,d

7.6

2.4

15.1

  

Enquiry type—safety

45.1

64.8

55.7

  

ARIA index, relative call frequencye

0.209

 

Highly accessible

1.14

1.17

1.22

  

Accessible

0.55

0.46

0.48

  

Moderately accessible

0.48

0.44

0.32

  

Remote

0.42

-

0.53

  

Very remote

0.56

0.80

1.00

  
  1. Comparison between group in callers’ and patients’ age was obtained from Tukey’s post-hoc analysis. Only comparison with statistically a significant result at the p ≤ 0.05 is presented
  2. QMH = Queensland Medication Helpline, ML = National Prescribing Service Medicines Line, Time 1 = pre-the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) 2002 study (1996 – 9 July 2002), Time 2 = post-WHI 2002 (10 July – 19 September 2002), Time 3 = QMH = Queensland Medication Helpline, ML = National Prescribing Service Medicines Line, Time 1 = pre-the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) 2002 study (1996 – 9 July 2002), Time 2 = post-WHI 2002 (10 July – 19 September 2002), Time 3 = QMH = Queensland Medication Helpline, ML = National Prescribing Service Medicines Line, Time 1 = pre-the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) 2002 study (1996 – 9 July 2002), Time 2 = post-WHI 2002 (10 July – 19 September 2002), Time 3 = September 2002 – June 2010, SD = standard deviation, ΔMean = mean difference between two groups, CI = confidence interval, ARIA = Accessibility Remoteness Index of Australia
  3. aValue of client (carer/patient), child/friend/other family, and parent were combined to meet the assumption of Pearson’s chi-square test, i.e. less than 20% of cells have an expected value less than 5
  4. bDenotes the category with column proportions that differ significantly across time-periods at the p ≤ 0.05 with Bonferroni correction
  5. cSome QMH calls have more than one question. Proportion in this variable reflects the proportion of the number of enquiry types to total enquiry type (Time 1, number (n) menopause questions = 1,739; Time 2, (n) menopause = 170)
  6. dAll categories related to safety in Enquiry type
  7. eRelative call frequency was calculated by dividing the proportion of calls by proportion of population in the specific ARIA index
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BMC Women's Health

ISSN: 1472-6874

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