Multimedia Support for Perimenopausal Women

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed project aims to establish the feasibility of developing an interactive website called Charting the Change: A Woman's Guide to Perimenopause (www.chartingthechange.com), a personalized website to facilitate positive psychosocial adjustment in perimenopausal women experiencing menopausal symptoms. The relevance for this program among women is vast. Of those women falling within the typical age range for the menopausal transition, there are approximately 11 million women aged 40-44, 10 million aged 45-49, and 9 million aged 50-54. One out of every three women is post-menopausal. Never has the need been greater to offer readily accessible, quality health education and support regarding the menopausal transition. Events related to scientific outcome studies on the use of hormone therapies have changed how women and providers approach menopause management, age-related disease prevention, and improved well-being during midlife. Using the full capabilities of interactive web programming, this product allows for individual feedback and tailoring of menopausal information based on personal input informed by social learning, decision support, and motivational theories for behavior change; a content management system allows for continual updating. This product offers a competitive advantage over the few online personalized menopause resources that focus primarily on hormone decision making and which are available only in research settings or closed web systems. Co-marketing opportunities with the pharmacy retail, bio-technology and medical education companies, will allow for dissemination through a variety of promotional channels to reach a large audience of women and health providers. Phase I will entail the conceptualization of the web-based program derived from stakeholder input, i.e., women (aged 40-55) and health providers, and the production and pilot testing of a demonstration website. Phase II will entail production of a fully functional, interactive website, a clinical trial to test the efficacy of the program on end-user menopause knowledge, self-efficacy, quality of life and decision support.