The prevalence of menstrual pain and associated risk factors among Iranian women

Abstract

Aim: To estimate the prevalence of dysmenorrhea in Iranian women and investigate associated risk factors. Material & Methods: In a cross‐sectional study in Tehran, Iran in 2007, 381 women (81% response rate, age 16–56 years) were selected through a stratified random sample of 22 different districts and completed a questionnaire about dysmenorrhea. Descriptive statistics, spearman rank correlation statistic, and ordinal logistic regression models were used. Confounding and effect‐modification were explored for each association. Results: The prevalence of no, mild, moderate, and severe menstrual pain was 10%, 41%, 28%, and 22%, respectively. Older age and high intake of fruits and vegetables were protective factors for menstrual pain while women with family history of dysmenorrhea, higher stress and depression tended to have more severe pain. Body mass index, parity, smoking, and physical activity were not significantly associated with dysmenorrhea after controlling for potential confounding factors and effect modifiers. Conclusion: Menstrual pain is a common complaint in Iranian women. The inverse association between fruit and vegetable intake and dysmenorrhea, and reduction of stress and depression need to be further explored and considered in terms of recommendation to reduce dysmenorrhea.

A Community Based Study on Menstrual Disorders Among the Rural Women of Reproductive Age

“…It was not possible to discriminate between primary and secondary dysmenorrhoea by questionnaire, and menstrual pain as a whole was considered in this study. In this study higher socio-economic status women had less pain compared with women from low socio-economic status which is in line with a study done among Iranian women in 2007 (24). All the association does not necessarily imply a causal relationship as per epidemiological study (25).…”

The magnitude, long-term trend and lifestyle risk factors of dysmenorrhea and premenstrual syndrome

“…Therefore, the reported rate was more appropriately interpreted as one-month prevalence rate. The highest prevalence of 91% was reported in a random sample of Iranian women aged 16 to 56 years, with most under 30 years of age without children, through self-reporting [72].…”

“…The association of age and dysmenorrhea was reported in nine studies, with two longitudinal [11,69] and five cross-sectional [3,65,68,71,72] studies consistently demonstrating a significant inverse relationship between age and the risk of dysmenorrhea (Table 3-2). Among the seven studies reporting an inverse association, four conducted the analyses adjusted for parity/live birth, whereas the other three failed to do so [69,71,72]. In the study by Weissman et al [11], the univariate analysis revealed that women younger than 25 years were at more than twice the risk [76].…”

“…Whilst Weissman et al [11] and Tavallaee et al [72] used similar definitions as pain requiring bed rest and missing work or cutting back on activities, the other study defined it as having a score of 8 to 10 on a 10-point visual analogue scale [74]. According to these criteria, severe pain was reported in 2% to 29% of women.…”

“…A total of 14 individual studies [3,4,11,[64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74] and two systematic reviews [10,45] presented data on the prevalence and/or incidence rates of dysmenorrhea.…”