When it comes to aging and menopause, African American women feel the best, and Chinese American and Japanese American women feel the least positive, according to a new study of more than 16,000 women. The study, part of the larger, 10-year Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, known as SWAN, aimed to examine the role of attitudes in the experience of menopause, says lead author Barbara Sommer, a UC Davis psychology postgraduate researcher. The National Institutes of Health, specifically the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Nursing Research, funded the ongoing multi-ethnic, community-based SWAN study of menopause and its effects on subsequent disease, beginning in 1995. Dr. Ellen Gold, an epidemiologist with the UC Davis School of Medicine, participates in the SWAN study as well, serving as principal investigator for Northern California. Gold is studying factors affecting the physical symptoms of menopause and expects to release some of her findings within the next year. The range in attitudes toward menopause can be interpreted in women's general life context, the authors say. "For less resilient individuals and those lacking economic and social support, the menopausal transition may be difficult to accommodate. For others, menopause may simply be one more transition in life's course." African American women may be more positive about menopause because it seems a minor stressor, compared with having dealt with the consequences of racism during their lives, the authors say. Family patterns, too, might contribute. "Perhaps African American women have spent more time with their older female relatives and have witnessed the menopausal transition more closely, thus being less susceptible to false stereotypes," the study's authors note. Both African American and white women agreed that menopause meant more freedom and independence, while Hispanic women agreed they would feel regret once they reached menopause. That Asian women tended to be more negative about menopause surprised the study's authors, Sommer says, as the finding runs counter to the traditional concept of Asian respect for the elderly, which might mean a more positive attitude toward menopause as a sign of aging.