Survey study, 2020
How common is premenstrual syndrome in Korean young adult women?
Between 22 and 42 percent of Korean nursing students had PMS, depending on whether they reported from memory or tracked symptoms in real-time.
What they did
Two-stage study: first, 151 nursing students in Seoul completed surveys about menstrual cycles and PMS using recalled symptoms (April to June 2017). Second, 17 students with PMS then tracked symptoms daily for about three months (May to September 2017).
What they found
Of 151 students, 104 (68.9 percent) had regular periods averaging 29.38 days with an average duration of 5.72 days. 55 (37.4 percent) experienced heavy bleeding. Using memory-based recall, 64 (42.4 percent) had PMS. With real-time tracking, 52.9 percent of the 17 students showed confirmed PMS, suggesting an overall estimated prevalence of 22.4 percent.
What it means for you
Real-time symptom tracking gives more reliable PMS rates than asking women to remember. Regular menstrual cycles and heavy bleeding are common in this population. Main limitations: small sample, only nursing students from one city, may not represent all Korean women.
151
Students in initial survey
42.4%
With PMS by memory-based report
22.4%
Estimated PMS prevalence with daily tracking
About the study
- Original title
- Menstrual Cycle Characteristics and Premenstrual Syndrome Prevalence Based on the Daily Record of Severity of Problems in Korean Young Adult Women
- Authors
- Kim YJ, Park YJ
- Journal
- Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
- Year
- 2020
- Study design
- Survey study
- Participants
- 151
- What was tested
- None - observational study
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2020.50.1.147
Topics
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