Effects of a social-media-based support on premenstrual syndrome and physical activity among female university students in South Korea

Abstract

Introduction: This study examined the effects of social-media-based support on premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and physical activity among female South Korean university students.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study with an equivalent-control-group pretest–posttest design randomly assigned 64 female students with PMS to the experimental or control group. The experimental group received social-media-based support through a smartphone application, text messaging, and e-mail for one menstrual cycle between September and December, 2016. Descriptive and inferential statistics included a Chi-square test and independent and paired t-tests.

Results: Significant differences emerged between the experimental and control groups in total PMS scores (p = .003), 14 premenstrual symptoms, and physical activity (p = .010).

Conclusions: Female university students with PMS experienced decreased premenstrual symptoms and increased physical activity with social-media-based support, which could be an efficacious, accessible, and widely available nursing intervention to manage PMS and physical activity.

Keywords:

• Social-media-based support
• premenstrual syndrome
• premenstrual symptom
• physical activity
• female university students

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) under Grant number 2013R1A1A1008686.