Table 1.

Variability within and across measurement tools

Measure	Article n (citations)	Item	Recall period	Response options
				Likerta	Yes/nob
Standardized Questionnaires (n = 85)c
Menopause Rating Scale	45c,d [31–40, 42–76]	Heart discomfort		5
	5 [77–81]	Heart discomfort	1 week to 1 month	5
	1 [82]	Heart discomfort			√
	1 [83]	Heart discomfort	1 month		√
	5 [84–88]	Heart discomfort/palpitation		5
	1 [89]	Heart discomfort/palpitation	1 month		√
	7 [90–96]	Heart discomfort (unusual awareness of heartbeat, heart skipping, heart racing, tightness)		5
	2 [97, 98]	Heart discomfort/cardiac symptoms		5
	1 [99]	Cardiac symptoms (palpitations, racing, heartbeat, irregular beats, tightness in chest)		5
	1 [100]	Cardiac		5
Blatt-Kupperman Menopausal Index	6c [12, 44, 101–104]	Palpitations		4
	1 [105]	Palpitations
	1 [106]	Rapid heartbeat		3
Kaczmarek menopause-specific questionnaire	2 [107, 108]	Palpitations and butterflies			√
Simplified Menopause Index	1 [109]	Palpitation
	1 [110]	Breathlessness and palpitations (I become short of breath and experience palpitations)
Cardiovascular Symptom Index for Midlife Women	1 [111]	Palpitation		6	√
Menopausal-specific Quality of Life	1 [112]	Heart beating quickly and heart discomfort			√
Survey adapted from menopause symptom list	1 [113]	Palpitations (Heart beating quickly or strongly)		5
Women’s Health Questionnaire	1 [114]	Tachycardia		4	√
Other Assessment Tools (n = 26)
Unspecified self-administered questionnaire	4 [115–118]	Palpitation/heart palpitations
	3 [119–121]	Palpitation			√
	1 [122]	Palpitation	1 year		√
	2 [123, 124]	Palpitation		4
	1 [125]	Palpitations	1 year	4
	1 [126]	Palpitation		4
	1 [127]	Irregular heart beats			√
	1 [128]	Tachycardia			√
Interview	2 [129, 130]	Palpitations
	1 [131]	Palpitations	1 month		√
	1 [7]d	Palpitations	1 month
	1 [132]	Palpitations			√
	1 [133]	Palpitations	12 months	4 & 7e	√
	1 [134]	Palpitations	2 weeks
	1 [135]	Heart pounding (or racing)	2 weeks		√
	1 [136]	Palpitation of heart, excitable/ anxiety
	1 [137]	Rapid heartbeat			√f
Unspecified	2 [138, 139]	Palpitations		4

Blank boxes = information was not reported in articles

^a Likert scale column denotes number of points on scale

• 7-point scale: how frequently experienced, details not specified

• 6-point scale: 0 no symptom to 5 extremely severe

• 5-point scale variations were 0 not present/no symptoms/absent/no complaints, 1 mild, 2 moderate, 3 severe, 4 very severe/very severe complaints; or 0.0 no symptom, 0.1–0.3 mild, 0.4–0.5 moderate, 0.6–0.7 severe, 0.8–1.0 very severe; or intensity of difficulties; • 0 none, 1 minor, 2 medium, 3 major, 4 unbearable

• 4-point scale variations were: 0 to 3 severity; Absent, low, moderate, strong; or 0 no, 1 slight, 2 moderate, 3 severe; or 0 no symptom to 3 severe; mild (once in a while) to very serious (requires treatment); or 0 not at all, 1 sometimes, 2 often, 3 always; or 0 symptom did not occur, 1 mild symptom that did not interfere with usual life, 2 moderate symptom that interfered somewhat with usual activities, • 3 severe symptom that prevented routine daily activities; or Grade 1 no symptoms, 2 slight symptoms, 3 moderate symptoms, 4 severe symptoms

• 3-point scale: 1 slight symptoms, limited and not bothersome; 2 moderate symptoms, distressing, required medication but did not disrupt work, could be tolerated; 3 severe symptoms, distressing, required medication, and time off work

^b Yes/no, presence/absence

^c One article used both Menopause Rating Scale and Blatt-Kupperman Menopause Index

^d Open-ended questions about severity

^e 4-point scale for distress and 7-point scale for frequency

^f Yes, no, and I don’t know