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Survey study, 2021

Can changing diet, sleep, and daily activities reduce PMS symptoms?

Yes. When nursing students made lifestyle changes to nutrition, sleep, and daily activities, their PMS symptoms improved significantly. PMS was also linked to poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking exposure, and family history.

Moderate study design 300 adolescent female nursing students

What they did

Quasi-experimental study with 300 adolescent female nursing students. Researchers tested a lifestyle modification program covering nutrition, rest and sleep, and daily activities. They measured results before and after using questionnaires and a PMS symptom scale.

What they found

Lifestyle changes significantly improved PMS symptoms (p < 0.001 for all three areas: nutrition, rest and sleep, and daily activities). PMS was associated with higher body weight, sedentary lifestyle, passive smoking exposure, positive family history of PMS, excessive coffee drinking, and frequent fast food consumption.

What it means for you

Changing what you eat, how much you sleep, and your activity level can noticeably reduce PMS symptoms. This study had 300 participants which is fairly large, but it was not a true controlled experiment and all participants were nursing students, so results may not apply to all women.

300

students in study

p < 0.001

improvement in all three intervention areas

About the study

Original title
Life Style Modification for Reducing of Premenstrual Syndrome among nursing students
Authors
Heba A. Ibrahim, Rehab Mohamed Abdelhady, Hemmat Mostafa Elbana
Journal
Journal of Nursing Science Benha University/Journal of Nursing Science Benha University
Year
2021
Study design
Survey study
What was tested
lifestyle modification program (nutrition, sleep, daily activities)
Open access
Yes

Topics