Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2019

DOI

10.1186/s12887-019-1442-6

Publication Title

BMC Pediatrics

Volume

19

Issue

1

Pages

80 (1-12)

Abstract

Background

Although dysmenorrhea is not a life-threatening condition, it can cause a substantial burden on individuals and communities. There is no data on the prevalence of dysmenorrhea in Kuwait. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of dysmenorrhea among female public high-school students in Kuwait and investigate factors associated with dysmenorrhea.

Methods

A cross-sectional study using multistage cluster sampling with probability proportional to size method was conducted on 763 twelfth grade female public high-school students (aged 16–21 years). We used face-to-face interview with a structured questionnaire to collect data on dysmenorrhea and presumed risk factors. Weight and height of the students were measured using appropriate weight and height scales in a standardized manner. The association between dysmenorrhea and potential risk factors was assessed using multiple logistic regression.

Results

The one-year prevalence of dysmenorrhea was found to be 85.6% (95%CI: 83.1–88.1%). Of the participants with dysmenorrhea, 26% visited a public or a private clinic for their pain and 4.1% were hospitalized for their menstrual pain. Furthermore, 58.2% of students with dysmenorrhea missed at least one school day and 13.9% missed at least one exam. Age of menarche (p-value = 0.005), regularity and flow of the menstrual period (p-value = 0.025, p-value = 0.009; respectively), and drinking coffee (p-value = 0.004) were significantly associated with dysmenorrhea in multivariable analysis.

Conclusion

Dysmenorrhea seems to be highly prevalent among female high-school students in Kuwait, resembling that of high-income countries. Because of the scale of the problem, utilizing school nurses to reassure and manage students with primary dysmenorrhea and referring suspected cases of secondary dysmenorrhea is recommended.

Comments

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Original Publication Citation

Al-Matouq, S., Al-Mutairi, H., Al-Mutairi, O., Abdulaziz, F., Al-Basri, D., Al-Enzi, M., & Al-Taiar, A. (2019). Dysmenorrhea among high-school students and its associated factors in Kuwait. BMC Pediatrics, 19(1), 1-12, Article 80. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1442-6

ORCID

0000-0001-7421-3381 (Al-Taiar)

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