The experience of dysmenorrhoea among Ghanaian senior high and university students: pain characteristics and effects

Reproductive Health

Joe Nat A Clegg-Lamptey²  Florence Dedey²  Lydia Aziato¹ 

[1] Department of Adult Health, School of Nursing, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 43, Legon, Accra, Ghana;Department of Surgery, University of Ghana Medical School, Accra, Ghana

关键词: Adolescents;    Menstrual pain;    Ghana;    Phenomenology;    Qualitative research;   

Others  :  1146298
DOI  :  10.1186/1742-4755-11-58

 received in 2014-01-14, accepted in 2014-07-15,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Dysmenorrhoea is a common problem of women at the reproductive age and may have negative effect on the education of females at various stages on the educational ladder.

Context and purpose

This study sought to gain an in-depth understanding of the experience of dysmenorrhoea and its effect on female students in a secondary and a tertiary institution in Accra, Ghana.

Methods

The study employed a descriptive phenomenology design and was conducted at a University and a Senior High School (SHS) in Accra. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to recruit participants and data was saturated with 16 participants. Concurrent analysis was done by applying the processes of content analysis and the NVivo software was used to manage the data.

Results

It was realized that dysmenorrhoea is associated with symptoms such as diarrhoea, headache and vomiting. Pain may start one week to the day of menstruation and the severity differed across the days of menstruation. The effect of dysmenorrhoea included activity intolerance, altered emotion and interaction, altered sleep pattern, absenteeism and inattentiveness, wishes and regrets, and misconceptions.

Conclusions

It was concluded that severe dysmenorrhoea has a debilitating effect on female students and is associated with misconceptions that could result in drastic action with fatal consequences. Thus, there is the need to enhance education on dysmenorrhoea, and an aggressive step should be taken to effectively manage dysmenorrhoea.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Aziato et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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