Knowledge and attitudes towards dysmenorrhea among adolescent girls in an urban school in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Knowledge of and attitudes towards dysmenorrhea among adolescent school girls were assessed in this study. A descriptive study was conducted among 200 Year 12 girls at a school in the Nugegoda Educational Division in the district of Colombo. Data collection was done by using non-probability convenience sampling. The results indicated that 84% of the study population had dysmenorrhea. Paracetamol was the drug of choice for pain relief. There was a statistically-significant (P  < 0.05) association between pain and poor mental health status (66%) of the adolescent girls, but there was no significant association between pain and poor physical health (P = 0.887) and poor social health status (P  = 0.395). Bathing was found to affect pain, as reported by 95% of the students. Dysmenorrhea was common among adolescent girls in our study population, and was found to affect their mental status. Health-education sessions are important to raise awareness among students of dysmenorrhea.

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Keywords:

• adolescent girl;
• attitude;
• dysmenorrhea;
• knowledge;
• Sri Lanka;
• urban school
• • 
    

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What is Nursing

Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life.

Nurses may be differentiated from other health care providers by their approach to patient care, training, and scope of practice. Nurses practice in a wide diversity of practice areas with a different scope of practice and level of prescriber authority in each. Many nurses provide care within the ordering scope of physicians, and this traditional role has come to shape the historic public image of nurses as care providers. However, nurses are permitted by most jurisdictions to practice independently in a variety of settings depending on training level. In the postwar period, nurse education has undergone a process of diversification towards advanced and specialized credentials, and many of the traditional regulations and provider roles are changing.

Nurses develop a plan of care, working collaboratively with physicians, therapists, the patient, the patient's family and other team members, that focuses on treating illness to improve quality of life. In the U.S. (and increasingly the United Kingdom), advanced practice nurses, such as clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners, diagnose health problems and prescribe medications and other therapies, depending on individual state regulations. Nurses may help coordinate the patient care performed by other members of a health care team such as therapists, medical practitioners and dietitians. Nurses provide care both interdependently, for example, with physicians, and independently as nursing professionals.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) states nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.

This was adopted from Wikipedia.

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