5%.6 A type I error of 5% was defined, with a margin of error of 4% (the selleck chemicals llc absolute difference between the proportion in the sample and that of the

population), resulting in a sample size of 280 women. Taking into consideration a possible loss of 10% of the participants, the minimum sample size was increased to 308 women. The final sample obtained consisted of 617 women aged 50 years or more. This study forms part of a larger project conducted to evaluate the health conditions of women aged 50 years or more. The project was approved by the internal review board of CAISM/UNICAMP and was conducted in compliance with the current version of the Declaration of Helsinki and with Resolution 196/96 of the Brazilian National Committee for Ethics

in Research (CONEP) and its subsequent revisions. Inclusion and exclusion criteria Women aged 50 years or more were eligible, while those with any factor that prevented the interview from taking place were excluded. Precluding factors included lack of cognitive ability to answer the questionnaire, prior commitments and incompatibility of schedules. Instrument The participants answered a structured, pre-tested questionnaire created on the basis of three pre-existing questionnaires. Of these, two were Brazilian questionnaires, one of which was part of the SABE project on health, well-being and ageing in Latin America and the Caribbean,7 while the other formed part of a population-based survey denominated VIGITEL 2008, conducted by the Brazilian Ministry of Health.12 The third questionnaire was used in the ‘Women’s Health and Aging Study’, a nationwide

study conducted in the USA.13 The present questionnaire was divided into five sections: sociodemographic evaluation, health-related habits, self-perception of health, and evaluation of functional capacity and health-related problems. Variables The independent variables consisted of: age (in years), marital status, years of schooling, number of people living in the household, skin colour, smoking and alcohol consumption, having private medical insurance, practice of physical exercise, having stopped menstruating more than a year ago; physician’s diagnosis of menopause, body mass index (BMI) at 20–30 years GSK-3 of age, current BMI, and self-perception of health. The dependent variable was age at onset of diabetes reported by women at the time of the interview. This information was obtained by asking women if they had the disease and whether it was diagnosed by a physician. With a positive answer, the individual was then asked about the time since diagnosis and on treatment. Thus, the presence of diabetes was further validated. Data analysis First, the age of onset of diabetes in annual intervals, reported by women at the time of the interview, was used to calculate the cumulative continuation rates (survival) without diabetes, using the life table method. If the woman had not experienced diabetes at the time of the interview, it was considered censored data.