Prevalence and severity of dysmenorrhoea among adolescent Jordanian girls: a cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Objective. Dysmenorrhoea is prevalent among adolescent girls. The aim is to report its prevalence and to study the associations between its presence, severity, and characteristics of the adolescents and their menstrual cycles.
Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted between October 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023, and included adolescents from six schools. Information about presence, characteristics, and severity of dys­menorrhoea were collected. Multinomial regression was used to study as­sociations between presence and severity of dysmenorrhoea and various variables, a Pvalue < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results. We recruited 945 adolescents with the mean (SD) age and age of menarche being 15.3 (± 1.3) years and 12.8 (± 1.3) years, respectively. Of those recruited, 81.7% had dysmenorrhoea, and its severity as measured by a numeric analogue scale was below and above the mean in 45% of the respondents. Furthermore, 14.7% missed school days during menstruation.
There were significant associations between age of menarche below the mean, light periods and presence of dysmenorrhoea (p < 0.05), and between severity of dysmenorrhoea and age group 13-15 years and light or average menstrual flow (all p < 0.05).
Conclusions. Dysmenorrhoea is prevalent among Jordanian adolescents, and almost half of the study population reported high severity scores. There were associations presence of dysmenorrhoea and age of menarche below the mean and light periods, and between severity of dysmenorrhoea and age group 13-15 years and light or average menstrual flow. The negative im­pact on school attendance should be considered by healthcare policymakers who are interested in adolescent health.