Association of menstruation with life activities of adolescents in Abha, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Menstrual disorders especially dysmenorrhea is a common problem in adolescent girls. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of dysmenorrhea, and assess the association between dysmenorrhea and daily life interference among secondary-school girls in Abha, Saudi Arabia. This cross-sectional study was carried out in Abha city among 445 secondary-schoolgirls. A self-administered tool based on menstrual disorder of teenagers (MDOT) questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics were computed for discrete variables, and mean and standard deviation were computed for continuous variables. Pearson’s chi-square test was used to test the association between variables of interest. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the menstrual symptoms that were independently associated with high interference in daily life activities and to identify the most affected daily life activity. P-values ≤ .05 was considered statistically significant to test the obtained results. One in 3 girls reported irregular menstruation. Dysmenorrhea was present in 75.3% of girls (45.1% reported mild, 29.9% reported moderate, and 25.0% reported severe pain). High interference in daily life activity due to dysmenorrhea was reported by 83.9% and around 70.3% missed school. In bivariate analysis, dysmenorrhea was significantly associated with limited physical activity (odds ratio = 1.67, 95% confidence interval 1.04–2.68). After adjusting for potential confounders, menstrual symptoms were independently associated with high interference in attending school (adjusted odds ratio = 2.61, 95% confidence interval 1.47–4.59). This study suggests that dysmenorrhea is highly prevalent among adolescent girls in Abha and is significantly associated with interference in daily life activities, particularly school attendance.