Prevalence of Dysmenorrhea and Effectiveness of Selected Yogasanas on Dysmenorrhea Among Adolescent Girls

Background: Adolescence for girls is a time of physical, emotional and social change [1]. Dysmenorrhea is the painful menstruation of sufficient magnitude to incapacitate day-to-day activities [2] Recurrent school absenteeism has negative impacts on adolescent girls. Yogasanas are an evidence-based solution in treating dysmenorrhea [3].

Objective: To assess the prevalence of dysmenorrhea among adolescent girls. To evaluate the effectiveness of selected Yogasanas on dysmenorrhea in the experimental group and the control group. To find out the association between the pretest scores of dysmenorrhea among adolescent girls with selected study variables.

Method: The research proposes a Quantitative approach, which is conducted in two phases to meet the objectives. In Phase I, a Descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted and study variable proforma and WaLIDD score were used to assess the prevalence of dysmenorrhea. In Phase II, a quasi-experimental design was adopted to assess the effectiveness of selected Yogasanas on dysmenorrhea among adolescent girls. Wong Baker’s Facial Pain Scale was used to assess the pain level.

Result: The prevalence rate was 95.4%. The mean post-test scores of Group I is less than that of the mean post-test score of Group II (p<0.01). There is an association between pretest scores of dysmenorrhea with duration of menstruation and previous knowledge on yoga measures.

Conclusion: The prevalence of dysmenorrhea among adolescent girls was higher (95.4%). There is a significant difference in the post-test scores on practising selected Yogasanas (p<0.01). There is an association between pretest scores of duration of menstruation, and previous knowledge on yoga of adolescent girls (p<0.05).