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.
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/
Topics
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