Correlation Of Severity of Primary Dysmenorrhea with Body Mass Index in Adult Females

Introduction: Primary Dysmenorrhea (PD) is an important public health problem. It has a negative impact on the social and occupational roles of females in the society. Certain similar studies conducted in past only examined the relationship between the prevalence of PD and BMI. The existing data was insufficient to demonstrate the effects of BMI on severity of PD. Looking at the paucity of data, the present study was designed to fill this gap and provide a better insight on correlation between severity of PD and BMI.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 163 females between 18-25 years, having PD and menstruating regularly. An evaluation form was used to assess the intensity of pain and the severity of PD. The participants were categorized into mild, moderate and severe groups using a Multi-dimensional Scoring System (MSS). Demographic variables, height, weight were collected and BMI was calculated. Based on BMI females were categorized into underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. For data analysis spearman’s correlation coefficient was performed using SPSS with alpha set at </= 0.05 at 95% CI.

Results: A weak negative correlation was found between the severity of PD and the BMI (correlation coefficient = -.039) whereas an intermediate negative correlation was found between intensity of pain and PD (correlation coefficient = -.249). Also, the intensity of pain was found to be inversely proportional to BMI. That is with the increase in BMI, there is decrease in the intensity of pain in the participants.

Conclusion: In this study no significant correlation was found between the severity of PD and BMI. However, it showed that BMI and Intensity of pain during PD are related.