---
title: Can a short questionnaire reliably spot PMS in research studies, instead of months of daily symptom tracking?
description: Yes. A brief retrospective questionnaire given after women first reported PMS worked almost as well as the 'gold standard' of daily symptom charting for ident
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/a-simple-method-of-assessing-premenstrual-syndrome-in-large-prospective-studies-2007/
---

- [Niyora](https://niyora.com/)
- [Research](https://niyora.com/research/)
- [Library](https://niyora.com/research/library/)
- Can a short questionnaire reliably spot PMS in research studies, instead of months of daily symptom tracking?

Cohort study, 2007

# Can a short questionnaire reliably spot PMS in research studies, instead of months of daily symptom tracking?

Yes. A brief retrospective questionnaire given after women first reported PMS worked almost as well as the 'gold standard' of daily symptom charting for identifying real PMS cases.

 Early or limited evidence

135 women who first reported new PMS and 371 who never reported PMS, from the Nurses' Health Study II

## What they did

Researchers used 135 women from the Nurses' Health Study II who first reported PMS in 2001, and 371 women who never reported PMS between 1989 and 2001. All of them filled out a retrospective menstrual symptom questionnaire in 2002, and the results were compared against daily symptom charting and used to test risk factors like age and calcium intake.

## What they found

Women who met standard PMS criteria on the retrospective questionnaire had menstrual symptom patterns almost identical to those confirmed by daily prospective charting. Risk estimates (for example, for calcium intake and PMS) were similar whether the questionnaire method or the gold-standard charting method was used, but using looser definitions of 'case' and 'non-case' weakened the results.

## What it means for you

This suggests large studies can save time and effort by using an initial report plus a short follow-up questionnaire to confirm PMS, rather than requiring months of daily charting. The main limit is that this is a methods study, not a treatment study, so it does not tell you anything about symptom relief, and it comes from one specific study population.

135

women who reported new PMS

371

women who never reported PMS

## About the study

Original title A simple method of assessing premenstrual syndrome in large prospective studies Authors Bertone-Johnson ER, Hankinson SE, Johnson SR et al. Journal The Journal of reproductive medicine Year 2007 Study design Cohort study Participants 135 What was tested None (comparison of a retrospective questionnaire method against daily symptom charting) Read the paper [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17939593/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17939593/)

## Topics

[Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-pms/)[Calcium](https://niyora.com/research/topics/treatment-calcium/)

Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits.

Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor.

## Related studies

Randomised trial, 2026

Does calcium and vitamin D supplementation reduce PMS symptoms?

Systematic review, 2025

Do nutritional interventions help with emotional symptoms of PMS?

Randomised trial, 2025

How effective are non-hormonal treatments for severe PMS?

Randomised trial, 2025

Does the PMSoff supplement help PMS and PMDD symptoms?

Systematic review, 2025

Does calcium supplementation reduce PMS symptoms?

Randomised trial, 2017

Does calcium reduce PMS symptoms?

Ask AI about this page

Copy prompt

ChatGPT

↗

Claude

↗

Perplexity

↗

Google AI Mode

↗

Grok

↗