Dysmenorrhea among female medical students in King Abdulaziz University: Prevalence, Predictors and outcome
Abstract
Objective: To determine the prevalence, predictors and outcome of dysmenorrhea among female medical students in King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 435 medical students at KAU, Jeddah selected through stratified random sample method. A pre-constructed, validated, self-administered questionnaire was used to collect personal and socio-demographic information. Data about menstrual history, stress, smoking were also collected. The severity of dysmenorrhea was scored by the “Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)â€. Descriptive and analytical statistics were conducted.
Results: The prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 60.9%. Logistic regression showed that heavy period was the first predictor of dysmenorrhea (aOR=1.94; 95% CI: 1.29- 2.91), followed by stress (aOR=1.90; 95% C.I.: 1.19-3.07). The prevalence of severe dysmenorrhea among the sufferers was 38.6%. Depressed mood was the commonest (80.8%) symptom accompanying dysmenorrhea. Regarding the outcome of dysmenorrhea, 67.5% of the sufferes reported emotional instability, while 28.3% reported absenteeism from the university.
Conclusions: A high prevalence of dysmenorrhea was prevalent among medical students in King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Â Health promotion, screening programs, and stress management courses are recommended.Â
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.316.8752
How to cite this:Ibrahim NK, AlGhamdi MS, Al-Shaibani AN, AlAmri FA, Alharbi HA, Al-Jadani AK, et al. Dysmenorrhea among female medical students in King Abdulaziz University: Prevalence, Predictors and outcome. Pak J Med Sci 2015;31(6):1312-1317. Â Â doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.12669/pjms.316.8752
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.