The Body Mass Index and Menstrual Problems among Adolescent Students

Abstract

Menstruation is an important part of female reproductive cycle but menstrual problems in adolescent girls may affect normal life of adolescent and young adult women. Many factors play a role in regularity and flow of menstrual cycle, which include hormonal changes, genetics and body mass index (BMI). Objective: Objective was to assess the relationship between body mass index and menstrual problems. Design: the current study was a cross sectional study carried out between October 2014 to April 2015. Setting: The study was conducted in four governmental secondary and preparatory schools, which represent one district of Port Said City, together with the Faculty of nursing at Port-Said, Egypt. A purposive sample of 366 female students who attained menarche was selected from the above-mentioned settings. Results: The mean age of the girls was 14.9 years and more than two thirds (66.7%) had regular menstrual cycle, while 33.3% of them had irregular menstrual cycle. The majority of the sample (82.8%) complained of premenstrual symptoms. As regards BMI ranged between 18.3 - 33.9 kgandcm2, 53.8% had normal weight, while 33.9%, 12.0% were overweight & obese. Relationship between BMI and menstrual problems. A statistically significant relationship was found between BMI menstrual irregularity (P = 0.0001) and BMI and severity of premenstrual symptoms excess body hair (P=0.007, 0.03 respectively). Conclusions: Based on the result current study concluded that, BMI play a very important role for menstrual cycle regularity. Therefore, adolescents have to give healthy & balance nutrition leads to maintain the normal BMI and regulate their menstrual cycle. The body weight and socio economic status has significant relation with menstrual problems. Recommendations: lifestyle modification and nutritional counseling for female students could alleviate menstrual problems. It will not only improve the girls current health, sense of well-being and overall quality of life but may also lower her risks for future disease and ill health after proper advice about diet and exercise, further research in nutritional pattern in adolescents can be done.