Use of complementary and alternative medicine during the menopause transition: longitudinal results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Objective: This study examined whether use of complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies during the menopause transition varied by ethnicity.

Design: The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation is a prospective cohort study following a group of 3,302 women from five racial/ethnic groups at seven clinical sites nationwide. Using longitudinal data encompassing 6 years of follow-up, we examined trends in use of five categories of CAM (nutritional, physical, psychological, herbal, and folk) by menopause status and ethnicity.

Attitudes toward menopause and aging across ethnic/racial groups.

Objective: Attitudes have a potential role to play in the experience of menopause. The objective of this study was to examine the degree to which attitudes toward menopause and aging vary across ethnic groups and menopausal status (ie, premenopausal through postmenopausal).

Methods: More than 16,000 women were interviewed by telephone as part of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.