Purpose: To identify factors associated with menstrual distress and characterize the relationship between menstrual distress and sleep disturbance in middle-school girls.
Methods: Participants in this correlational study were 117 middle-school girls who were recruited through convenience sampling. Data were collected from March 2018 to April 2018 using self-reported structured questionnaires and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0. Factors associated with menstrual distress included physiological, psychological, and situational factors based on the theory of unpleasant symptoms.
Results: Age of menarche (β=-.28, p < .001), amount of menstruation (β=.23, p=.004), lifestyle-related exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (β=.21, p=.027), and academic and peer-relationship stress (β=.19, p=.025) influenced menstrual distress, explaining 47.4% of the variance in this regression model. The relationship between menstrual distress and sleep disturbance was statistically significant. Sleep disturbance was increased 1.26 folds when dysmenorrhea score increased by one unit (OR=1.26, 95% CI: 1.01~1.58). However, parental support was not a significant moderating factor of sleep disturbance.
Conclusion: This study provides basis to develop an intervention strategy to alleviate menstrual discomfort in adolescents and improve their quality of sleep.
Keywords: Adolescent; Dysmenorrhea; Premenstrual syndrome; Sleep disorder.