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Abstract
Background
Menstruation is a natural phenomenon considered an important indicator of women’s health, reflecting their endocrine function. Women in low middle income countries face substantial menstrual hygiene management challenges. Data on the knowledge of dysmenorrhea and health-related practices among Malaysian women are scarce. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of dysmenorrhea among Malaysian women in Kuala Lumpur and its association with socio-demographic factors, knowledge level, and general practices.
Method
A cross-sectional study was carried out among Malaysian women in Kuala Lumpur. A total of 362 unmarried women, nulliparous and aged between 18 and 25 years old, were included in this study. Participants were conveniently recruited through online platforms as well as face to face using a self-administered questionnaire with five sections consisting of demographics, menstrual characteristics, Working ability, Location, Intensity, Days of pain, Dysmenorrhea (WaLIDD) score for diagnosing and assessing the severity of dysmenorrhea as well as an evaluation of respondents’ general knowledge and practices towards dysmenorrhea. The collected data were analysed using the SPSS tool, a descriptive statistic was used to report demographic characteristics. Inferential statistics was used to report the differentiation, association, and correlations of the variables.
Results
The prevalence of primary dysmenorrhea was 73.2%. It was found that the majority of the respondents had poor knowledge (60%) and poor practices (61.88%) of dysmenorrhea. The most common preventive practices among the respondents were using dietary supplements, and herbs, taking a rest and exercising. The findings also indicated that dysmenorrhea among the respondents was significantly associated with family history of dysmenorrhea (p = 0.002), monthly income (p = 0.001), and knowledge level (p = 0.001).
Conclusion
Dysmenorrhea has a high prevalence among women in Malaysia in Kula Lumpur driven by low knowledge and lack of evidence-based practices among these women. Thus, it is critical for Government and healthcare authorities to promote education related to women health among Malaysian women.
Acknowledgments
Open Access funding was provided by QU Health, Qatar University. Foremost, the authors would like to express gratitude to the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of UCSI University for approving this study. The authors also sincerely thank the public of Malaysia for spending their time by participating in the survey.
Authors contributions
MJF and MR conceptualized the study and performed the analysis and interpretation of the data. RMB collected data and wrote the original manuscript. SAK and MAH helped in creating our methodology and assisted in manuscript writing. DLR assisted in the literature review. GSP and LCM reviewed the manuscript and assisted in the discussion section. All authors have made an intellectual contribution to the work and have approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.
Ethics approval and informed consent
Ethical approval was obtained from the UCSI university ethics committee (Ref. no. IEC-2020-FPS-079)). The eligible participants who accepted to join this study were given verbal and written information about the study, and then were requested to sign and date a written informed consent form.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.