Abstract
The study was intended to investigate the bothersome level of premenstrual symptoms, their pattern and to examine the relationships between menstrual attitude and the premenstrual symptoms. Two hundred sixty eight female students were recruited from a college located in Kyungido from March 1, 2001 to July 1, 2001. A general characteristics questionnaires, the premenstrual assessment form(PAF) and the menstrual distress questionnaire(MDQ) were used to measure the bothersome level of the premenstrual symptoms and the menstrual attitude. The data were analyzed by SPSS-PC+ program. The results of this study were as follows
1. All subject who were participated in the research reported more than one symptom in premenstrual period and the mean score of total categories in PAF was low(1.89). The subject had more symptoms of fatigue, abdominal bloating and discomfort, backache and muscle stiffness and among the 21 categories fatigue feature, hysteroid feature, water retention feature and miscellaneous mood/behavior change feature were prevalent. On the other hand organic mental feature and increased well-being feature were rare that premenstrual symptom has negative aspect than positive.
2. Degree of discomfort in premenstrual symptom was related with dysmenorrhea but other general characteristics.
3. In Menstruation attitude, the student in college recognized menstruation as natural but bothersome and causes negatives effects on body and emotion.
4. There were significant correlation(r=.395, p<0.000) between premenstrual symptom and level of Menstrual attitude.
5. Menstrual attitude explained 15.3% variance of PMS and five categories of menstrual attitude, especially factor 1(menstruation is a phenomena that weakens women physically and psychologically) was most highly correlated with PMS and explained 21.1% variance of PMS.