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S. Altaf1, R. Ali1, B. Saif1, Z. Arshad1, K. Iftikhar1
1Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Rehabilitation Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan
Background: A developing country like Pakistan has a fairly equal proportion of conservative and non-conservative population. Therefore, talking about menstrual cramps and/or menstrual hygiene is considered a taboo even today. Much of the population is unaware of what primary dysmenorrhea even is and how mental health contributes to it. Therefore, it is important to create awareness regarding the impact of primary dysmenorrhea on mental health and find out how it affects quality of life in young female physical therapy students.
Purpose: The main purpose of the study was to determine the association of primary dysmenorrhea with mental status in physical therapy students.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted online. Data was collected between March to July 2020 from a sample of three hundred and eighty eight female physical therapy students through non-probability convenience sampling. Participants were aged 18-25 years, residing in the cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi and studying Doctor of Physical Therapy in Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University. Menstrual pattern, depression, anxiety and stress levels were evaluated in all participants. A self-structured questionnaire was used to determine the menstrual pattern in participants whereas depression, stress and anxiety were determined using Depression-Anxiety-Stress scale (DASS).
Results: Out of 482 physical therapy students, 388 had primary dysmenorrhea. The sample of 388 participants was further assessed for severity of pain and number of years of painful menstruation. Majority of participants had no depression 151(38.9%), had no anxiety 122(31.4%) and had no stress 187 (48.2%). A positive but weak correlation was found for severity of pain with depression (r=0.200, P=0.00), anxiety (r=0.228, P=0.00) and stress (r=0.212, P=0.00). Participants also had a positive but weak correlation of number of years of painful menstruation with depression (r=0.110, P=0.031), anxiety (r=0.131, P=0.010) and stress (r=0.138, P=0.006) respectively.
Conclusion(s): This study concludes that primary dysmenorrhea has significant association with depression, anxiety and stress.
Implications: As the results of this study show that primary dysmenorrhea has significant relation with depression, anxiety and stress, it implies that all these factors can reduce the quality of life of physical therapy students which decreases their level of activity and impact their performance in concerned field of study. Through this study, awareness can be created amongst physical therapy students that alongside obvious physical symptoms of primary dysmenorrhea, it can also impact their mental health and restrict them from excelling in their field. However, if factors associated with dysmenorrhea are identified, it can help in developing better prevention and management strategies.
Funding, acknowledgements: This research study was unfunded.
Keywords: Primary dysmenorrhea, Mental status, Physical therapy students
Topic: Pelvic, sexual and reproductive health
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University
Committee: Institutional Review Board & Ethics Committee
Ethics number: 049-869-2020
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
