Do depression, fatigue, and body esteem influence premenstrual symptoms in nursing students?

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to investigate factors affecting premenstrual symptoms among nursing students, focusing on depression, fatigue, and body esteem. @*Methods@#The participants were 145 nursing students at a university located in Kyungnam, Korea. Data were collected from November 2 to November 30, 2019 using self-reported structured questionnaires, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis. @*Results@#The mean item score for premenstrual symptoms was 2.52±0.92, indicating a low level. The mean score for depression was 16.05±7.72, and 58.6% of participants were found to be non-depressed, 16.6% to be mildly depressed, 15.2% to be moderately depressed, and 9.7% to be severely depressed. The mean item score for fatigue was 4.84±0.84, indicating a moderate level, and that for body esteem was 2.94±0.44, indicating a moderate level. The premenstrual symptoms of nursing students showed a statistically significant correlation with depression (r=–.58, p<.001), fatigue (r=.33, p<.001), and body esteem (r=–.28, p<.001). The factors impacting the premenstrual symptoms of nursing students were depression (β=.47, p<.001), dysmenorrhea (β=–.18, p=.009), menstrual cycle regularity (β=.17, p=.013), and body esteem (β=–.14, p=.038). The total explanatory power of these variables was 41.0%. @*Conclusion@#The results suggest that intervention programs to relieve the premenstrual symptoms of nursing students should focus on depression, menstrual cycle regularity, dysmenorrhea, and body esteem.