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
• •