A Study to Assess the Prevalence of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome among Adolescent Girls in a Selected College at Mangalore

Context: Adolescent girls constitute 1/5^th of the female population in the world. Generally this group is considered health and not been given adequate attention in health programmes. Menarche is sign of growing up. This period constitutes between 11-14 years. Pre-menstrual syndrome is a set of physical, emotional and behavioural symptoms, that occurs a week before menstruation in most of the cycles. The physical symptoms includes acne, breast tenderness, swelling in the legs, weight gain, abdominal bloating, fatigue, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, pelvic heaviness, appetite changes, constipation, heart palpitations, muscle aches, headache and backache. The emotional symptoms includes irritability, mood swings, sadness, tension, restlessness, loneliness, food craving, stress, insomnia/ hypersomnia, anxiety, anger and behavioural symptoms include poor problem solving, poor concentration, forgetfulness and social avoidance, confusion.

The purpose of the study was to find out the prevalence of PMS among adolescent girls.

Objectives

To find out the prevalence of PMS among adolescent girls

To describe the severity of physical and emotional symptoms related to PMS

To find out the association of the demographic characteristics

Methods Non-experimental study with descriptive design was used for the study. The sample consisted of 30 adolescent girls who met the inclusion criteria and selected using stratified random sampling technique. The study was conducted in S.C.S. college of nursing sciences, Mangalore. Formal informed consent was obtained from the concerned authorities and the participants prior to data collection. The tool was administered for 15 minutes. The data was collected using checklist to assess PMS.

Result With regard to the study the mean and SD of the physical symptoms were 10.87 and 4.32 respectively and for emotional symptoms were 7.33 and 2.73 respectively. The result showed that there is a prevalence of mild to moderate symptoms of PMS among adolescent girls with score ranging from 0-35.

Interpretation and conclusion Prevalence of PMS among adolescent girls ranges between mild and moderate.