Some methodological problems of biodemographic investigations. A sampling research on menopausal age

Abstract

The study of menopausal age is nowadays of great interest for anthropologists and biodemographers since, together with the menarche age, it defines the duration of the fertile period of a female population. The two methods of analysis most used for such researches are compared in this work the longitudinal (retrospective) method and the transversal ("status quo") method. The two criteria are deeply different both for methodological characteristics and research aims; they are therefore not interchangeable. The former describes an historically ended situation and estimates the probability that a woman will reach such condition at age x. The latter considers the phenomenon from the viewpoint of its composite actuality and estimates the probability that a woman of age x is undergoing menopause. The different numerical results obtained by applying the two methods to the data of the same women sample are compared and discussed in this research.