A study on eating habits, stress, endocrine disruptor exposure behaviour and premenstrual syndrome in female college students

Abstract

Premenstrual syndrome refers to a combination of physical, emotional, and behavioral symptoms that can interfere with daily life, which appear about 2 to 10 days before menstruation (the sulfur period after ovulation) and disappear just before or after menstruation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship among the eating habits, stress, endocrine disruptor's exposure behavior and premenstrual syndrome of female college students. Data were collected from April 3 to April 20, 2019 using a structured questionnaire targeting 160 female college students who agreed to the purpose and procedure of the study. The collected data were analyzed for frequency, percentage, one way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation using the SPSS 25.0 program. As a result of the study, the average of female college students' eating habits, stress, endocrine disruptor exposure behavior and premenstrual syndrome were 2.51 points, 1.77 points, 2.72 points, and 2.08 points, respectively. As a result of the relationship analysis of the four research variables, premenstrual syndrome and dietary habits showed an inverse correlation (r=-0.170, p=0.033), and premenstrual syndrome and stress (r=0.418, p<0.001), Endocrine disruptors exposure behavior (r=0.234, p=0.003) showed a positive correlation. In addition, there was a negative correlation between eating habits and exposure behaviors of endocrine disruptors (r=-0.393, p<0.001), and there was a positive correlation between stress and endocrine disruptors exposure behavior (r=0.229, p=0.001).