The prevalence and risk factors of menstrual pain of married women in Anhui Province, China

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the prevalence and the associated risk factors for menstrual pain in a sample of rural married women of reproductive age in Anhui Province of China.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among married women (n = 14,828) aged 18-45 years. Data were collected through self-reported questionnaires. Mann Whitney U, Kruskal-Walls H tests and ordinal logistic regression models were used to analyze the data.

Results: The prevalence of no, moderate, severe menstrual pain was 80.1%, 18.7%, 1.2%, respectively. Lower educational level, lower stress level and earlier age at menarche were protective factors for menstrual pain while women with longer duration of menstrual flow tended to have menstrual pain. Compared to women with a normal body mass index (BMI), significantly higher odds of reporting menstrual pain were detected for women who were lower BMI or higher BMI. Age, length of menstrual cycle, blood type, anemia and previous pregnancy were not significantly associated with dysmenorrhea after controlling for potential confounding factors.

Conclusions: There is high prevalence of dysmenorrhea among women in China. Our results suggest that reduction of stress and maintaining a normal BMI may be important for women to have pain-free periods.

Keywords: Dysmenorrhea; Factor; Prevalence; Risk; Women.