Comparison of Prevalence of Premenstrual Syndrome Symptoms among Medical and Non-medical Professional Females and its Association with Depression, Anxiety, and Stress: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Objectives: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) includes psychological and somatic symptoms that start shortly before a woman’s menstruation. They are shown to affect a woman’s life negatively. Theis study aimed to measure the prevalence of PMS levels among the female population of Pakistan, to check its association with depression, anxiety, and stress, and to get a comparative analysis of PMS symptoms between medical professionals, non-medical professionals, and housewives. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted through online forms using snowball sampling on the sample size of n = 431. The questionnaire employed used shortened premenstrual assessment forms to measure the levels of PMS, along with depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS) to measure the levels and correlate them. Demographics included the name, age, profession, menstrual cycle regularity, pregnancy, contraception use, menopausal symptoms, and psychiatric disorders of the participants. Data analysis using descriptive statistics was done using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences IBM Statistics 26. Analysis of variance was performed to compare the means. Pearson’s correlation/regression analysis was done to quantify related variables. Parametric test (Independent T test also called student t test) was used to compare quantitative variables. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistical significance. Results: The majority of participants (58.2%) suffered from mild PMS while 39.9% and 8% of them suffered from moderate and severe PMS symptoms, respectively. Normal scores in DASS criteria were most prevalent among study subjects: (34.6%) anxiety, (53.6%) depression, and (47.8%) stress. Anxiety’s “extreme score” of (94%) was the most prevalent, while stress was the least. PMS was greatest in women working in the medical profession, second only to housewives. Depression and stress were most prevalent among women in medicine. Anxiety was highest among housewives. Conclusion: Most of our participants (58.2%) suffered from mild PMS, while severe PMS was present in only (8%) of the subjects. A strong correlation between PMS, depression, anxiety, and stress was found.