The prevalence and associated risk factors of primary dysmenorrhea among women in Beijing: a cross-sectional study

Primary dysmenorrhea is a common and troublesome gynecological condition. The disease seriously affects the daily life of young and middle-aged women and is a major public health problem. The aim of the research was to conduct an assessment of the prevalence of primary dysmenorrhea and associated factors in Beijing area, and to describe and compare the association between different lifestyles and the degree of dysmenorrhea. We conducted a cross-sectional study at Peking University People's Hospital in the form of an online questionnaire. Out of the total of 516 women who took part in the study, 450 were included in the analysis. The questionnaire consisted of 39 questions that were grouped into three parts. The first concerned characteristics of the study subjects such as age, weight and qualifications. The second part of the questionnaire pertained to the menstruation-related conditions, such as age at menarche, knowledge of menstruation, menstrual cycle, menstrual period, menstrual flow, and so on. In the third part, the women were asked about their lifestyle habits and emotional factors. Dysmenorrhea affected 86.4% of the interviewed women. Significant factors associated with dysmenorrhea were age of menarche (p < 0.001), body mass index (p = 0.023), smoking (p <0.001), eating sweet foods frequently (p = 0.042), sedentary time (p = 0.037) and self-esteem (p = 0.043). Chi-square test further found a statistically significant correlation between BMI (p = 0.032), alcohol consumption (p = 0.046), sleep duration (p = 0.006) and the severity of dysmenorrhea. This study shows that the prevalence of dysmenorrhea is high enough for medical workers and public health administrators to pay attention to it. Women with dysmenorrhea were characterized with a family history of dysmenorrhea, early age of menarche, frequent smoking, eating sweet foods frequently, sedentary time, abnormal BMI and low self-esteem. We suggest that it is necessary to pay attention to the related factors of dysmenorrhea.