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The Utilization of Health Examination by Menopausal and Older Women — 6 Provinces, China, 2018

What is already known about this topic? Improving their utilization of health examination is important for improving the health of menopausal and older women. What is added by this report? Only 32.3% and 29.7% of women had been screened for cervical cancer and breast cancer, respectively. The overall utilization rate of health examination for menopausal and older women is low. The health examination services for menopausal and older women were utilized less in the western regions and in rural areas than in the eastern and central regions and in urban areas. What are the implications for public health practice? The imbalance of development is an important factor affecting the utilization of health examination for menopausal and older women. It is necessary to take effective measures to improve the level of service utilization in the western region and rural areas, in order to narrow the gap in health between different regions.

With the extension of human life expectancy and the intensification of the aging of the population, the number of menopausal and older women in China has increased sharply. According to the sixth census in 2010, the number of women aged 40−65 years old in China has reached 220 million (1). Menopause is a special period in a woman's life. With the gradual decline of ovarian function and the decline of hormone levels, menopausal women are prone to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and other chronic diseases, which will affect their health and quality of life (2). Health examination is not only an important part of health care for menopausal and older women, but also an important means of detecting a variety of age related diseases in the early stages (3). In order to provide a scientific basis for targeted health care for older women and to promote the health of older women, a cross-sectional survey involving 5,049 women aged 50-70 years was conducted across eastern, central and western China. The main result of this study showed that the utilization rate of health examination for older women is low. The imbalance of development is an important factor affecting the utilization of health examination for menopausal and older women. The study was a cross-sectional survey in Jiangsu and Shandong, Hunan and Anhui, and Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, which were selected to represent the three socio-economic regions of China: Eastern, Central and Western China. In each province one urban and one rural area was selected as investigation sites.
Face-to-face interview questionnaires were completed by 5,049 women aged 50-70 years in the 6 provinces.
The average age of the respondents was 58.94±6.195 years. The main occupation of the cohort was farming, accounting for 55.2%, followed by retirees, accounting for 17.1%. Most of the participants (55.0%) had only primary school education or were illiterate, followed by those who had junior and senior high school education, accounting for 42.0%. The monthly income of the family was low -less than RMB 3,000 Yuan for 52.9%, followed by RMB 3,000-4,999 Yuan for 27.1%. The majority (89.9%) of the women were postmenopausal (Table 1).

DISCUSSION
The overall utilization rate of health examination by older women was low. Breast and cervical cancer screening and regular physical examination are one of the important elements of health care for menopausal and older women. However, this study found that the utilization of health examination services by menopausal and older women was low. Only 32.5% of women had received a regular physical examination within one year, which was lower than the overall result of the Fifth National Health Service Survey (43.3%) (4). Only 27.8% of women reported having been screened for both breast and cervical cancer in the past, and 32.3% and 29.7% of women had been screened for cervical cancer or breast cancer, respectively. The breast and cervical cancer screening rates were slightly higher than the results of the national sample survey in 2013 (22.5% and 26.7%, respectively) (5). However, the screening rate for breast (16.4%) and cervical cancer (15.2%) within one year were lower than those of the Fifth National Health Service Survey (26.5% and 24.3%, respectively) (4).
The village committee and community workers should play a greater role in organizing health examination to increase the participation rate. This study showed that a few (only 27.5%) menopausal and older women took the initiative to obtain health examination services. Many studies have shown that the lack of awareness was a major obstacle for women to participate in the examination. Women with older age, low education level, underemployment, low family income and lack of health insurance are less likely to take the initiative to seek a health examination (6)(7). In this study, the most common reasons for not having a regular physical examination were the lack of organization, and feeling it was unnecessary or being unwilling. It reminds us that in order to enhance the service utilization of menopausal and older women and improve the participation rate, it is critical to encourage the village committee and community workers to play a role in organizing health examination, to carry out targeted health education for different groups of women.
The imbalance of regional economic development is an important factor affecting the utilization of services for menopausal and older women. Many studies have shown that the imbalance of regional economic development is an important factor restricting the utilization of services by menopausal and older women (5,8). The results of this study showed that menopausal and older women in the western region and in rural areas were less likely to utilize the health examination services than those in the eastern and central regions and in urban areas. This pattern may be related to the health awareness, education level, economic conditions of women and level of development of the health system (7). Therefore, we need to take effective measures to effectively improve the level of service utilization in the western region and rural areas, in order to narrow the gap in health between different age groups of women.   There were some limitations in this study. Firstly, self-reported information might be subjected to biases. Secondly, the study used convenience sampling, and data were collected in 12 counties/districts in 6 provinces, so the results might not be representative of the regional and national levels.