• Azmat Ullah, Khadijah Fayyaz, Uswa Javed, Muhammad Usman, Rameesha Malik, Nafeesa Arif, and Amna Kaleem.
• Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan.
• Pain Med. 2021 Dec 11; 22 (12): 2851-2862.

ObjectiveThe study was conducted to determine the prevalence of dysmenorrhea and investigate factors associated with dysmenorrhic pain among university students in Lahore, Pakistan.Design And SettingA cross-sectional study was conducted across various public and private sector universities in Lahore.MethodsA self-administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 600 randomly selected female university students.ResultsThe prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 91.5%. Age at menarche (odds ratio [OR] = 1.96, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.10-3.50) was the only significant factor associated with dysmenorrhea. The mean pain severity score among dysmenorrhic students was 5.62 ± 2.28. Most of the participants (65.8%) were experiencing moderate/severe pain. Univariate analysis showed that irregular cycle (OR [95% CI] = 1.62 [1.13-2.33]), age at menarche of ≤14 years (OR [95% CI] = 1.46 [1.05-2.04]), duration of menses of more than 5 days (OR [95% CI] = 1.42 [1.02-1.99]), stress (OR [95% CI] = 2.16 [1.54-3.03]), moderate meat/protein consumption (OR [95% CI] = 1.55 [1.08-2.21]), and medical specialization (OR [95% CI] = 1.72 [1.17-2.52]) were significantly associated with pain severity among dysmenorrhic female students. Multivariate binary logistic regression analysis revealed that medical specialization (OR [95% CI] = 1.83 [1.22-2.73]), age at menarche (OR [95% CI] = 0.603 [0.42-0.86]), regularity of menses (OR [95% CI] = 1.52 [1.04-2.22]), moderate meat/protein consumption (OR [95% CI] = 1.69 [1.16-2.45]), and stress (OR [95% CI] = 1.87 [1.32-2.66]) were independent predictors of moderate/severe dysmenorrhic pain.ConclusionThe study revealed an alarmingly high prevalence of dysmenorrhea among university students. High levels of stress and early menarche were the potent determinants of moderate/severe dysmenorrhea that disturbs quality of life.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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