The Effect of College Women's Smoking on Menstrual Discomfort

여대생 흡연이 월경불편감에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of college women s active and passive smoking on menstrual discomfort. The subjects were 252 college female students (active smokers, 71; people who passively inhaled others smoke, 104; nonsmokers who also didn't inhale others smoke, 77). Subjects were selected from 5 colleges in North Kyong Sang Province, Korea. Data was collected from March to June of 2000 with a structured questionnaire. The instruments used for this study were the revised Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) developed by Moos(1968), general characteristic, menstrual characteristic, and smoking characteristic scale developed by researchers. The data were analysed by the SPSS/PC+ program. The results were as follows 1. There was no statistically significant difference of menstrual discomfort level among the active smokers, those who passively inhaled others smoke, and who did not inhale others smoke(F= 2.613, p= .075). 2. The mean score of menstrual discomfort was moderate(M= 60.8008, SD= 17.9243). The level of menstrual discomfort was various (minimum score 29.00- maximum score 110.0). 3. Factors influencing menstrual discomfort were on life stress events(F= 4.057, p = .045), irregular menstrual cycle(t = 3.968, p = .047), and amount of flow during menstruation(F = 4.018, p = .019). The recommendations from this study are necessity of further studies to investigate how heavy active and passive smoking have effect on menstrual discomfort.