Cohort study, 1992
How common is premenstrual syndrome in teenagers and what predicts who develops it?
About 14% of 15-year-old girls had PMS. It was associated with current anxiety, inattention, and poor overall health, but childhood health was not predictive.
What they did
In a longitudinal study of health and development, 384 fifteen-year-old girls reported whether they experienced premenstrual syndrome symptoms. Researchers looked for associations with anxiety, attention problems, and perceived health.
What they found
14% of the 384 girls were identified as having PMS. Among those with PMS, the syndrome was associated with self-reported anxiety, inattention, and poor health at age 15. However, how girls rated their health before adolescence did not predict who would develop PMS, and maternal ratings of their childhood mental and physical health also did not predict adolescent PMS.
What it means for you
In teenagers, PMS is present in about 1 in 7 girls and appears linked to current mental health and wellbeing rather than childhood factors. The main limitation is that this is a single age group and relies on self-reported data, so we cannot determine cause and effect.
384
fifteen-year-old girls studied
14%
with premenstrual syndrome
About the study
- Original title
- Prevalence and correlates of the premenstrual syndrome in adolescence
- Authors
- Raja SN, Feehan M, Stanton WR et al.
- Journal
- Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Year
- 1992
- Study design
- Cohort study
- What was tested
- None. This was observational.
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199209000-00003
Topics
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