A study on premenstrual syndrome symptoms and their association with sleep quality in nursing staff

Background: Symptoms in the premenstrual period can be debilitating and troublesome and impacts the general health of women. There is a dearth of studies examining the relationship between sleep quality and premenstrual symptoms in women, especially in Indian settings. The current study was conducted with the aim of looking at the frequency of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) in different age groups and the association of these symptoms with sleep quality in nursing staff.Methods: The cross-sectional study involved 450 female nursing staff between 25- 50 years of age from various tertiary care hospitals who were administered the Premenstrual Tension Syndrome Rating Scale (PMTS) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The data was then statistically analyzed.Results: The prevalence of premenstrual symptoms was found to be 85.6% amongst the participants (according to the ACOG criteria), while the proportion of females suffering from PMS (according to DSM IVTR criteria) was 36.5%. A correlation analysis between total scores of PMTS and PSQI showed a positive, linear and significant association.Conclusions: The intensity of PMS was associated with reduction in sleep quality in present study. Further studies on PMS and sleep related parameters need to carry out in larger samples to give impetus to our findings.