Main Article Content
Abstract
The study aims to identify the extent of women’s awareness of the meaning of advanced age and the nature of the psycho-social aspects of health that they face in the advanced stages of life to come up with a suggested proposal for the contribution of social services to the development of women’s awareness of aspects of advanced life stages from a cognitive perspective. The samples of the study are women older than 40 who are either in their perimenopause or menopause phase. The size of the sample is (208) woman; (104) women from the health center Al-Olaya and (104) women from the health center in Al-Suleimaniah. The study results showed a decline in their awareness that this stage in their age constitutes the flow and movement phase (productivity and contribution) versus recession and showed a likely rate of (0.22 %) and came last in the results. Results of the study also showed low response rates regarding health and physical aspects such as the occurrence of hot flashes (12%), reduced fertility (9.95), and osteoporosis (7.5%). These rates underscore the lack of awareness of the respondents concerning these variables. On the other hand, the study showed a high awareness of the respondents with respect to psychological aspects such as the awareness of the feeling of neglect and lack of interest by others scored highest. Society’s perception of advanced age is one of the social realities which received (7.13 %) by respondents. The study recommends the need to activate the contribution of social services in the increase of women›s awareness of health, psychological and social manifestations of menopause and beyond