The purpose of this study was to construct a measurement instrument for climacteric symptoms among Korean and Japanese women.

From Dec. 1^st of 2003 to March 30^th of 2004, in-depth interviews were made with 26 women (15 in Jinju, Korea and 11 in Nagasaki, Japan) aged from 45 to 59 years who had not taken hormone replacement therapy to relieve the climacteric symptoms. A draft questionnaire with 45 items was constructed on the basis of the interview data and literature review. Three obstetricians, three PhDs in nursing science, and a chief nurse who was exclusively in charge of the climacteric management, examined the draft questionnaire to evaluate content validity. After deletions 39 items remained for a preliminary questionnaire. A survey was conducted by using a convenient sampling method in Jinju of Korea and Nagasaki of Japan during the period from April 1^st, 2004 to July 10^th, 2005.

Factor analysis identified 4 factors, which were “mental and psychological symptoms”, “physical symp-toms”, “loss of autonomic nervous system symptoms”, “sexual symptoms”. These four factors explained 46.9% of total variance.

The results demonstrated that climacteric symptom scale was multidimensional, and the reliability and validity of the scale was supported.

This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of progressive muscle relaxation training using biofeedback on perceived stress, stress response, immune response and climacteric symptoms.

This was a crossover, pre-post test design. The study subjects are 36 middle-aged women who were selected at 2 public health centers. The independent variable was Biofeedback training for 4 weeks, twice a week and home training for 4 weeks. Dependent variables were perceived stress, stress response, immune response, and climacteric symptoms measured with Hildtch's scale (1996).

Progressive muscle relaxation training using biofeedback was not effective in reducing perceived stress, but it was shown to be effective in reducing physiological stress responses such as pulse rate and EMG. Though blood pressure and skin conductance were repeatedly down, and skin temperature slowly increased, there were no statistically significant differences. Progressive muscle relaxation training using biofeedback was not effective in reducing serum cortisol, enhancing immune responses, or decreasing climacteric symptoms.

The findings point to a pressing need for further, well-controlled and designed research with consideration in selection of subjects and instruments, frequency of measurements, the sampling method, and intervention modalities.

This cross-sectional survey research was undertaken to examine the degree of depression in postmenopausal women and to analyze the factors affecting that depression.

325 people from public health center in Inchon were surveyed as the subject of this study. Data collection was conducted through the use of questionnaires.

The above half of these sampled people were in depressed state (64.0%) and the mean score of depression was 12.71. There were significant differences in the depression state according to presence of spouse, economic level, exercise, and smoking. A positive correlation was found between depression and climacteric symptoms. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the most powerful predictor was climacteric symptom. Climacteric symptom, presence of spouse, smoking, and exercise accounted for 45% of the variance in postmenopausal women's depression.

Nurses are able to use these results to plan and implement nursing interventions for decreasing depression and consequent the improved quality of life in Korean postmenopausal women. Also, the nurses have to be more aware of the following groups; solitary women, low-income group and smokers, that they have higher mean score of depression.