Effect of Diet, Physical Activity, and Psychosocial Factors, on Menstrual Cycle Abnormalities in College Students of Karad, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

BACKGROUND Menstruation is a periodic and cyclical shedding of pre-gestational endometrium. Abnormalities of menstruation can be seen as dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, menorrhagia, premenstrual symptoms (PMS), hypomenorrhea etc. This abnormality can be due to various factors like diet, smoking, physical activity, exercise, stress etc. This study was conducted to study the factors affecting menstrual cycle like diet, physical activity, psychosocial factors and menstrual cycle abnormalities. METHODS This was an observational study undertaken on 300 participants aged between 18 - 26 years. A structured questionnaire comprising of components related to type of diet, physical activity, and the alterations in psychosocial factors along with the changes in menstrual cycle was used for this study. RESULTS According to the data, it could be seen that there was a significant relation between the diet altered (67 % of 300 participants) and the occurrence of menorrhagia (73 % with altered diet) (P < 0.0001) as well as oligomenorrhea (63 % with altered diet) (P < 0.0001). It was seen that absence of physical activity or following a sedentary lifestyle (61 % of 300 participants) had a relation with higher occurrence of dysmenorrhea (94 % with limited physical activity) (P < 0.0001) and menorrhagia (78 % with limited physical activity). A significant relation was seen between alterations in psychosocial factors (high levels of stress, anxiety, etc) (81 % of 300 participants) and oligomenorrhea (71 % with high levels of psychosocial factors alteration). High levels of stress also had a considerable effect on premenstrual symptoms (93 % with alterations in psychosocial factors). CONCLUSIONS Diet, physical activity or exercise and psychosocial factors had an effect on menstrual cycle abnormalities. Proper education about the effects of these factors is needed as these factors could be the underlying cause of abnormalities and hence can prevent future complications as well as improve the quality of life. KEY WORDS Menstrual Cycle, Diet, Physical Activity, Psychosocial Factors, Abnormalities