Prevalencia de dismenorrea y factores de riesgo en estudiantes de primero a cuarto ciclo de la carrera de medicina de la Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador 2020

Abstract

Background: dysmenorrhea is a very frequent gynecological disorder, occurring predominantly in adolescents and young adults, characterized by crampy pain during menstruation. It is a periodic alteration and the pain si usually of a moderate to severe intensity, it has been associated with risk factors as early menarche (before 12 years old), BMI greater than 25, duration of menstrual flow, family history, and habits such as coffee and tobacco consumption. It gets to compromise activities at an educational, social and economic level. Objective: determine prevalence of dysmenorrhea and risk factors in students from first to fourth semester of the medical career in the University of Cuenca, Ecuador in 2020. Methodological design: it is a descriptive study, the universe was composed by the students from first to fourth semester of the Medical career at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Cuenca, who were enrolled from September 2020 to February 2021. Virtual questionnaires we’re usted for data collection. Statistical analysis was performed in SPSS 20 and Excel, obtaining the arimethic mean, standard deviation, and odds ratio with 95% confidence interval and p-value. Results: the universe of study were 224 students, of which 11 refused to be part of this study, so our study had 213 participants, thus a prevalence of dysmenorrhea of 74.17% was obteined. Family history of dysmenorrhea (OR = 4.21; p = 0.005) and coffee consumption (OR = 7.86; p = 0.001) were risk factors for dysmenorrhea, while a body mass index greater than 25 (OR = 0.83 p = 0.616), menarche less than 12 years (OR = 2.17; p = 0, 08) and tobacco consumption (OR = 53 p = 0.0283) were not related to dysmenorrhea. Conclusions: A prevalence of 74.17% was found, with severe pain intensity ocurring in most cases (66.5%) based on the Aldresch and Milson scale. In addition, a statistically significant association was found between the presence of dysmenorrhea and coffee consumption, as well as with family history, while no relationship was evidenced with factors such as body mass index greater than 25, menarche before than 12 years old and tobacco consumption.