Dietary, Psychological and Lifestyle Factors Associated with Premenstrual Symptoms

AlJohara AlQuaiz; Muneerah Albugami; Ambreen Kazi; Fahdah Alshobaili; Fawzia Habib; Ellen B Gold

doi:10.2147/IJWH.S387259

Dietary, Psychological and Lifestyle Factors Associated with Premenstrual Symptoms

Int J Womens Health. 2022 Dec 16:14:1709-1722. doi: 10.2147/IJWH.S387259. eCollection 2022.

Authors

AlJohara AlQuaiz^{1

2}, Muneerah Albugami³, Ambreen Kazi^{1

2}, Fahdah Alshobaili², Fawzia Habib^{1

4}, Ellen B Gold⁵

Affiliations

¹ Princess Nora Bent Abdullah Chair for Women's Health Research, King Saud University Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Family & Community Medicine, King Saud University Medical city, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Medicine, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics, Taibah University, Madinah al Munawara, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA.

Abstract

Purpose: To measure the associations of diet, psycological distress, and lifestyle factors with premenstrual symptoms (PMSx) in women in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Patients and methods: An interview-based, cross-sectional study was conducted on 1831 women aged 18-50 years seen in primary healthcare centers and teaching institutes in Riyadh from December 2015 to June 2016. Question topics included sociodemographics, physical activity, smoking, and dietary habits information. PMSx were assessed using a symptom checklist with 6 domains: anxiety/mood changes; abdominal/back/joint pain; increased appetite/weight gain, breast pain/tenderness, severe headache, and ≥3 PMS symptoms (any). Multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to provide adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for factors associated with each PMSx domain.

Results: Except for breast pain, drinking >5 cups of Arabic coffee was associated with increased odds of anxiety/mood [aOR 2.44 (95% CI 1.44, 4.12)], pain [1.83 (1.13, 2.98)], appetite/weight gain [1.66 (1.10, 2.50)], headache [1.57 (1.00, 2.56)] and ≥3 symptoms [1.50 (1.07, 2.11)]. A significant association was noted between sugar intake and anxiety/mood symptoms [1.53 (1.07, 2.19)] and abdominal/back pain symptoms [1.84 (1.17, 2.88)]. Increased severity of psychological distress was associated with all symptom domains: anxiety/mood [2.75 (1.92, 3.94)]; pain [1.45 (0.92, 2.28)]; appetite/weight gain [2.01 (1.53, 2.65)]; breast pain [2.19 (1.68, 2.88)]; headache [1.86 (1.37, 2.54)] and ≥3 symptoms [3.52 (2.49, 4.95)]. Low physical activity was significantly associated with odds of breast pain symptoms [1.29 (1.04, 1.59)]. Smokers were 3.41 (1.19, 9.77) times as likely to report any ≥3 symptoms compared to nonsmokers.

Conclusion: Several potentially modifiable factors, such as diet and stress, were positively associated with PMSx. Thus, we suggest that increasing women's awareness of healthy lifestyles, particularly diet and stress reduction, may help to reduce the occurrence of premenstrual symptoms.

Keywords: coffee; diet; mental distress; premenstrual symptoms; women.

Grants and funding

The study was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.