The Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Management of Dysmenorrhea among Female Dormitory Students

• Main Authors: Wen-hsun Chang, 張文薰
• Other Authors: Mei-an Ku
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/82463857125858595493

碩士 === 南華大學 === 自然醫學研究所 === 96 === 　　The objective of the present study is to investigate the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the management of dysmenorrhea among female dormitory students. The study used a cross-sectional design to survey 103 female undergraduate students living in the dormitory of a university located in south Taiwan. The Menstrual Distress Questionnaire, the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form, and a series of questions on the use of CAM in the management of dysmenorrhea were included in the self-administrated questionnaire. The outcome measures included the self-rated health condition from the Short-Form 36 (SF-36) instrument, menstrual pain severity, interference with life tasks caused by menstrual pain, and the use of CAM. Chi-square tests, Analysis of Variance, and logistic regression analyses were conducted using SPSS version 12.0.1 for Windows. The results indicated that the prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 62.1%. There were no statistically significant associations between age, body mass index, age of menarche, or duration of menstruation with dysmenorrhea. Among the five dysmenorrhea management strategy domains, 59.4% of the respondents chose “seeking medical treatment” and of it, 32.3% was the use of over-the-counter medications. This proportion was higher than those seeking medical help from Western (19.4%) or Chinese (29.0%) medical doctors. In addition, the odds ratio of seeking medical treatment was significantly higher in individuals who were at the highest tertile of pain severity compared with those at the lowest tertile (odds ratio=8.00, 95% confidence interval=1.93, 33.18, p=0.004). The odds ratio of seeking medical treatment was also significantly higher in individuals who were at the highest tertile of interference with life tasks caused by menstrual pain compared with those at the lowest tertile (odds ratio=8.00, 95% confidence interval=1.79, 35.74, p=0.006). Furthermore, 87.5% of the respondents with dysmenorrhea had used CAM to management their dysmenorrheal and of it, the use of brown sugar drinks (75.0%) and Chinese herbal formula (68.8%) ranked at the top of the list. The two most popular sources of information for managing dysmenorrhea were found to be “friends and relatives” (81.3%) and “peers” (67.2%). “Folk remedies from word of mouth” also represented 23.4% of the information source. Future studies can evaluate the safety and the effectiveness of these folk remedies. Misleading health information may adversely affect our health, information on the management of dysmenorrhea, integrating Western medicine with complementary and alternative medicine, can be incorporated into the health education curriculum in schools.