PREMENUSTRAL SYNDROME, COPING MECHANISMS AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG WOLKITE UNIVERSITY FEMALE REGULAR STUDENTS, ETHIOPIA, 2021

Abstract

Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is used to describe physical, cognitive, affective, and behavioral symptoms that affect young and middle-aged women occurring cyclically during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Despite the considerable prevalence and impact of PMS that interferes with the development of nations by increasing mood instability and decreasing daily activity among women many professionals are still unaware of the impact of PMS on individuals, their families and environment and little attention has been given specifically in developing countries like Ethiopia for adolescent female university students. Objective: To assess magnitude of premenstrual syndrome associated factors and coping mechanisms among wolkite university female regular students, 2021 Methods: Institutional-based cross sectional study was conducted among Wolkite University regular female students from June 15/10/2021 to 30/10/2021 by using simple random and multistage systematic random sampling technique to select the study participants (N=631). Data was collected by using self-administered, pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire. Premenstrual syndrome scales comprised of 40 questions with three sub-scales were used to determine Premenstrual syndrome. Data was cleaned, coded and entered to Epi-data version-3.1, and analyzed using SPSS software version 25. Descriptive statistics was computed for independent variables as well as for coping mechanisms and presented in narration, tables and graphs. Analytic analyses schemes including bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression was computed to identify factors associated with premenstrual syndrome and those variables with P value of < 0.05 in multivariable analysis were declared as statistically significant. Result: From the total 631 study subjects, only 591 had completed the questionnaire. This makes the response rate 93.7%. From 591 study participants 224 (37.9%) [95% CI: (34, 40.9)] of them had premenstrual syndrome and abdominal cramps (78.8%), depression (73.3%) and fatigue (72.9%) were frequent symptoms. Having family history of PMS [AOR: 4.05; 95% CI: (2.49, 6.58)], no history of sexual intercourse [AOR: 2; 95% CI: (1.12, 3.47)], severe menstrual pain intensity [AOR: 3.09; 95% CI: (1.58, 6.05)], irregular menstrual cycle [AOR: 2.26; 95% CI: (1.41, 3.62)] early age of menarche (<13 years) [AOR: 2.64; 95% CI: (1.34, 5.19)], long menses (> 7 days) [AOR: 3.56; 95% CI: (1.53, 8.37)] and using many pads (>8) during menstruatio