Prevalence, Impact and Self-Management of Dysmenorrhea Among Nursing Students
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Abstract
Dysmenorrhea or menstrual pain is a common health problem among reproductive women and is reported as the most common reason for school absence. The purposes of this descriptive study were to explore the prevalence, intensity, and impact of dysmenorrhea and to describe the type and effectiveness of dysmenorrhea self-management strategies used by participants. One thousand and sixty-fve, 17-25 year old, nursing students were recruited. Data related to occurrence, intensity and impact of dysmenorrhea were obtained through the use of the Women’s Daily Health Diary (DHD) and the negative impact section of the Daily Record of Severity of Problem (DRSP). The type and effectiveness of dysmenorrhea self-management strategies used by the participants were obtained by Self-Management Measures Questionnaire (SMMQ).
Results revealed the prevalence of dysmenorrhea to be 66.1%. The greatest intensity of symptoms occurred during menstruation days, besides menstrual, pain, fatigue, increased sleep pattern, backache and irritability were also reported. The most disruptive negative impact of dymenorrhea was decreased concentration whilst reading textbooks and reduced ability to concentrate during lessons. Dysmenorrhea resulted in school absence of 13.8%.
The most common self-management strategies used to alleviate dysmenorrhea were drinking warm water (73.3%), taking pain relief medicine (67.9%) and doing nothing to relieve pain (62.1%). Taking pain relief medicine was the most effective way to alleviate dysmenorrhea. The overall effectiveness of any strategy only achieved a moderate level of pain reduction was reported with decreasing in moderate level. The reported overall effectiveness of self-management strategies for dysmenorrhea was a reduction in symptoms to a moderate level. The fndings suggest that the most common self-management strategies was not necessary to be the most effectiveness technique to relieve the symptom of dysmenorrhea.
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References
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