Aims: The present study aims to evaluate effects of different socio-economic, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors on natural age at menopause among Rajbanshi women of North Bengal.

Methods: The study participants consisted of 510 Rajbanshi women aged between 45 years to 55 years who had experienced natural menopause. All the women were residents of Darjeeling district of West Bengal. The socio-economic, socio-demographic and lifestyle variables were recorded using a structured schedule. The data were statistically analysed using SPSS (version 17.0). The statistical tests included binary logistic regression and stepwise regression.

Results: The mean age at natural menopause was 48.57 years (s.d.: 2.07; range: 44 years – 54 years). The binary logistic regression analysis showed that most of the factors except educational status (p>0.05) were significantly associated with natural menopause (p<0.05, p<0.01). The stepwise regression analysis showed that natural menopause was independently correlated with marital status, parity, last pregnancy and duration of breast feeding (p<0.01).

Conclusion: Marital status, parity, age at last pregnancy and duration of breast feeding appear to have highly significant effects on natural
age at menopause.