Premenstrual Syndrome in Turkish college students and its effects on life quality

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to analyze the frequency of Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) in college students, the factors affecting Premenstrual Syndrome and the effect of Premenstrual Syndrome on life quality.Material and methodThe research was performed on 316 students who study at Medical Sciences Faculty of Başkent University and accepted to take part in the research. The data of the research was compiled by using “Questionnaire Form”, “PMS Rating Scale” and “Life Quality Scale” developed by the researchers. In the analysis of the data; Percentage distribution, Chi-square test, One Way Anova test, Logistic regression, Multi nominal regression analysis were used.FindingsPMS was detected in 72.1% of the students. The most frequent symptoms are mainly low back pain, stress-discomfort, nervous-anger, distention and breast tenderness. PMS was found significantly high in those students who have menstrual irregularity, who have dysmenorrhea, who consume 2 cups of coffee or above per day and who smoke and drink alcohol (p < 0.05). When the relation of PMS with life quality was evaluated, it was determined that the life quality decreases as PMS score average increases (p < 0.05).ConclusionPMS rate is high in college students and this adversely affects the life quality. It was revealed that the preventive, instructive and consultancy roles of the medical staff became more of an issue in reducing the effect of the factors causing and/or aggravating these symptoms in order to decrease PMS incidence and to improve the life quality of the students.