Evaluation of a Smart Health Community for menopausal women in Australia

Opportunity 

As Australia and other advanced nations seek to increase women’s participation in the workforce, understanding their unique health needs across the lifecycle is critical. The menopause transition affects all women and trans (binary and non-binary) people with ovaries, representing a large current and future segment of the working population. Menopause is a major health and workforce issue, yet practical evidence about effective support remains limited. 

This collaboration saw an opportunity to combine digital health, evidence-based education and personalised clinical support to help people better understand and manage menopausal change, particularly in the workplace. 

Project Objectives  

The project set out to: 

• examine the evidence base for digital interventions and Smart Health Communities to address menopausal change. 
• develop and assess the feasibility and acceptability of a digital health platform to build an engaged Smart Health Community for women of menopausal age focusing on awareness, education, empowerment and behavioural change. 
• develop and pilot a suite of measures to evaluate the impact of the Smart Health Community on perceptions and experiences of menopausal change and coping with menopause within the workplace, from the perspective of women and their employers. 
• present the findings of the research to employees and employers to assess their ongoing interest in engaging in a commercial Smart Health Community product to address menopausal change in the workplace.