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Survey study, 2016

Does teaching women about PMS help reduce their symptoms?

Yes, in this study. Women who received an educational program showed increased knowledge about PMS and reduced symptom severity both immediately after and at three-month follow-up. However, the study lacked a comparison group, so natural improvement cannot be ruled out.

Early or limited evidence 60 nursing students with PMS symptoms, 75.8% aged 20-24 years

What they did

A before-and-after study of 60 nursing students with PMS symptoms, 75.8% aged 20-24 years. They received an educational program and completed questionnaires about knowledge and symptoms before the program, immediately after, and three months later.

What they found

Knowledge scores increased from 34.72 before the program to 86.28 after (p < 0.01). PMS severity scores decreased from 132.42 before to 107.52 after (p < 0.01). At three-month follow-up, symptom severity was 3.4 in month 1, 2.6 in month 2, and 2.2 in month 3.

What it means for you

Education about PMS may help reduce symptom severity. However, this was a small study without a control group of students who did not receive education, so we cannot be confident the program itself caused the improvement.

60

Students with PMS

34.72 to 86.28

Knowledge score before and after program

132.42 to 107.52

PMS severity score before and after program

About the study

Original title
Effects of an educational program in increasing knowledge and reducing premenstrual syndrome signs, symptoms and severity among nursing college students
Authors
Nafisa Abdalla, Mohammed Ibrahim Ahmed Gibreel
Journal
International Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences
Year
2016
Study design
Survey study
Participants
60
What was tested
Educational program about PMS
Open access
Yes
Original abstract

Objective: The objective of the following study is to determine the effects of an Educational Program in increasing knowledge and reducing premenstrual syndrome symptoms and severity among nursing college students.Material and Methods: A total of 60 students with Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) symptoms were included in the study group (n=60), the age of the majority of them (75.8%) was between 20-24 years, pre and post education program questionnaire was developed as a tool of data collection before and after the educational program. Also premenstrual symptoms and severity follow-up sheet was designed and conducted three month after the post education program to follow the effectiveness of the educational program in reducing the severity of the symptoms.Results: The study results indicate that there was significant difference between students’ knowledge before and after the program, the total score mean rank before program was (34.72), while after program was (86.28) p < 0.01 with significant difference between score before and after the program at 1% level of significant. It also shows a significant difference between PMS signs, symptoms and severity before and after program at 1% level of significant (total score mean and SD before program were (132.42, 13.72) respectively, and after program are (107.52, 14.47) respectively p < 0.01 with larger effect size of 0.613. The follow-up result shows a reduction in PMS symptom’s severity, the total severity averages of PMS sign and symptoms were 3.4 first month, 2.6 the second month and 2.2 for the third month out of 4 respectively.Conclusion: The educational program had a positive effect on increasing knowledge and decreasing PMS signs and symptoms severity. Also the program has decrease the effect of PMS signs and symptoms on study group life.

Reproduced under CC-BY.

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