A healthy habitual score for dietary intake is associated with primary dysmenorrhea among adolescent school girls

Background: Primary dysmenorrhea is one of the most common gynecological complaints among adolescent and young females in their reproductive age that affects their daily activities and social life. Nutritional habits are considered as risk factor for primary dysmenorrhea. ‘Thus the aim of our study was to assess the relation between healthy habits score for dietary intake and prevalence of primary dysmenorrhea.
Methods: The present study was conducted on 432 adolescent school girls (218 girls with nil to mild dysmenorrhea and 214 girls with moderate to severe dysmenorrhea). Healthy habitual scores (HHS) was calculated from 5 modifiable dietary intake habits considering high risk habit as ‘0’ and low risk habit as ‘1’ giving a composite score ranging from 0 to 5. We classified the healthy life style score into three category: 0-2 as low; 3 as medium and 4-5 as high. Correlation between HHS and its components with incident of primary dysmenorrhea were evaluated. HHS and risk of primary dysmenorrhea were evaluated using logistic regression analysis. The significance level of the all the tests were considered at a level of 0.05.
Results: Significant correlation was obtained between incident of primary dysmenorrhea and all tested habits. Magnitude of correlation was higher for HHS than individual habit. Among tested habitual factors sugar intake, skipping breakfast and frequency of junk food intake was positively correlated where as negative correlation was obtained between primary dysmenorrhea and dietary intake of vit-E and calcium. Considering low HHS as reference group odd ratio significantly low in medium and high HHS groups. Thus risk of primary dysmenorrhea was more among adolescent girls those led unhealthy dietary habits like take more sugar, frequently take junk foods and skipping breakfast and take vit-E and calcium below recommended amount.
Conclusion: Avoiding of Junk food, skipping breakfast and intaking of vit-E and calcium as per recommended amount and restricting sugar intake is recommended as a healthy dietary habit to minimize the risk of primary dysmenorrhea.