Funding outcome

Women experience a variety of symptoms during menopause some of which are hot flashes, sleep problems, mood changes, and changes in weight and metabolism. Previous research has shown that regular walking exercise has many physical health benefits for women going through menopause. Focus groups conducted by the Mature Women's Health Research group with participants recruited from the Edmonton Menopause Clinic has revealed a strong social aspect of walking groups; women enjoy interacting with each other and talking about their shared experiences with menopause in their daily lives. This highlights the benefits on mental health of the regular exercise as well. A mobile application is currently being designed to allow women to connect and meet with each other for walks around the Edmonton area. The app will allow women to be more in control of tracking and mediating their menopause symptoms at a pace that they are comfortable with. It will be restricted to registered users and will allow women to meet as per their preferences for time, location, and exercise intensity. Through this app, women will also be able to track their progress in menopause symptom changes through rating scales and quality of life questionnaires. We will invite women from the menopause clinic, who have previously consented to be contacted for research purposes, to test the app. We will assess the use of the app through surveys and data collection. From this we will evaluate the effectiveness of the app and make the needed improvements. The app will be refined to be more effective for both users and for menopause research.