Prevalence and Coping Mechanism of Dysmenorrhea Among Female University Students in Ghana.

Abstract

Introduction: Among young women, dysmenorrhea is known to be a prevalent condition that poses serious consequences for the quality of their daily lives. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and coping mechanism of dysmenorrhea among female students in Ghana. Method A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 211 female health science students at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology from 14th January 2023 to 26th January 2023. The participants were selected using a convenient sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the selected participants. Data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) programme IBM version 20. The results were presented in tables. Results The prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 97.2%. A more significant proportion of the students (99.02%) experienced pain in their lower abdomen. The predominant symptoms associated with dysmenorrhea were pimples (74.63%), mood swings (74.15%), and diarrhoea (70.73%). Among those who experienced dysmenorrhea, the frequently reported influences on their daily activities included withdrawal from activities (80%) and poor concentration (72.68%). More than half of the participants (50.2%) who experienced dysmenorrhea used medications, of which paracetamol (69.90%) was the most common. Self-medication (66.99%) was predominant among those who experienced dysmenorrhea. Most of the participants resorted to ignoring the pain (88.78%) and sleeping (83.41%) as their alternate interventions for coping with the pain. Conclusion This study establishes that dysmenorrhea is high among university students, and it negatively affects the daily activity of most of them.