Relationship between menstruation signs and anxiety, depression, and stress among adolescent girls at Asyut city

Abstract

Background: The menstruation signs are characterized by intense physical and psychological changes. The most common symptoms include anxiety, depression, stress the symptoms affect the quality of life of women, and cause impairment in many aspects of life. Aim of the study: To define the association between menstruation signs and anxiety, depression, and stress among adolescent school girls. Subject and methods: Cross sectional descriptive design was used in this study. The study included 600 students from public and private preparatory schools for girls at Asyut city. Four schools were selected randomly which namely; El-waledia, HodaSharawy, Dar-Heraa and Elslam schools three tools were used to accomplish this work. Tool I: A structured Questionnaire was developed by the investigators and included two parts: Part I: personal characters; Part II: data related to menstruation: Tool II: Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ), Tool III: Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS). Fieldwork: Data was collected in the period from the middle of February 2019 until the middle of May 2019. Results: half of the studied students 42% were age less than 15 years old with mean ± SD 14.80 ± 1.38, 44.2% of them menstruation duration less than 5 days with mean ± SD 4.85 ± 1.63. More than half of them (58%) within normal body weight. Nearly two third of them (71.8%, 60.5%) had average regular menstruation rhythm with premenstrual pain (63.7%). The majority of them did not complain from either bleeding nor breast engorgement (87.3%, 83.0%) respectively. (74.5%, 53.2% and 50.5%) of them had mood swings, depression and acne respectively. There is statistically significant difference between level of severity of distress before during and after menstruation p 0.000. There is a significant correlation between menstrual distress before, during and after menstruation and depression, anxiety and stress at p=0.000. Conclusions and recommendations: We can be concluded that with regard to high prevalence of increase menstruation signs before, during and after menstruation, as well as high incidence of depression, anxiety, and stress signs among the students, So It is necessary that. Investigation using longitudinal studies with continual assessment and evaluation of education interventions for adolescent girls with psychological problems related to severity of menstruation would be of great value in primary health promotion. Early diagnosis, reassurance and management of symptoms will go a long way towards smoother passage of adolescence into stable adult identity formation.