Data regarding the severity of premenstrual symptoms were
collected from three groups of women: women over age 24
years seeking care from a gynecological practitioner,
undergraduates at OSU living in student dormitories, and
graduate students enrolled at OSU. The symptoms evaluated
were depression, tiredness, irritability, anxiety,
headache, breast swelling and tenderness, craving for
sweets, craving for salty foods, binge eating, and acne.
Symptoms were rated on a scale of zero (not present) to
three (severe). Multivariate profile analysis was used to
evaluate the hypothesis that the profiles formed by the
mean vectors of these premenstrual symptoms were parallel
with regard to symptom severity, age, consumption of
caffeinated beverages and refined sugar, maternal history
of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and recent use of oral
contraceptives. Parallel profiles were further evaluated
for coincidence. Results of the analysis indicated that in
each of the three samples of women studied, the presence of
premenstrual symptomatology was indicated by one pattern of
symptom severity, and that this pattern remained constant
as symptoms became more severe. The variability in the
premenstrual symptoms could be explained by the inherent
variability of the women studied, a finding which does not
support the existence of multiple subtypes of PMS.
Evidence of a positive association between age and
increasing symptom severity was found only in the graduate
student group. High levels of consumption of caffeine were
shown to exacerbate premenstrual symptoms among the
graduate students, and frequent consumption of refined
sugar and "junk food" were shown to exacerbate symptoms
among older women. Increased symptom severity of
premenstrual symptoms in women whose mothers suffered from
PMS was noted only among undergraduate students. No
evidence was found to implicate oral contraceptive use in
the exacerbation or amelioration of premenstrual symptoms. / Graduation date: 1992
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/37002 |
| Date | 05 November 1991 |
| Creators | Jorgensen, Jane L. |
| Contributors | Rossignol, Annette M. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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