A Study on the Differentiation of Women with Perimenstrual Symptom Severity and Perimenstrual Distress Patterns
Authors: Park Young Joo , Ryu Ho Shin 
Published: September 2023

The purpose of this study was to describe perimenstrual symptom severity levels and perimenstrual distress patterns of women. The study performed the discriminant analysis in which included seven factors : age, pariety, social support, menstrual socialization(mother's symptom, sister's symptom, and menstrual effect), attitude of sex role and depression. The subjects were 283 women that they were not pregnant or lactating, had at least one period in past three months, would understand the purpose of study and willingly accepted the participation. The data analysis was done by pc-SAS program after data collection from Nov. 20, 1997 to Dec. 18, 1997. The descriptive analysis was done to explore general characteristics of the subjects and the stepwise discriminant analysis was done to verify factors in relation to perimenstrual symptom severity levels(severe vs mild menstrual symptom group) and perimenstrual distress patterns(spasmodic vs congestive menstrual symptom group). The instruments were selected for this study from Interpersonal Support Evaluation List(ISEL) by Cohen and Hoberman(1983), Center for Epidemic Studies Depression(CES-D) by Radloff(1977), and Sex Role Attitude Scale by Yunok Suh(1995), Mother's symptom and sister's symptom measurements by Woods, Mitchell & Lentz(1995), and menstrual effect by Brooks-Gun & Ruble(1980).The major findings of this study are as follows : 1. Of the 283 women, 93 women(32.9%) were assessed to severe perimenstrual symptom group and 190 women(67.1%) were assessed to mild perimenstrual symptom group. Results from the stepwise discriminant analysis showed three factors, such as depression, menstrual effect, and age, significantly related to perimenstrual symptom severity and they explained 20% of the total variance. The linear discriminant equation included three factors related to perimenstrual symptom groups was showed(Z=1.445 depression+0.174 menstrual effect-0.054 age). The cutting score(Z) was 2.809. We classified the severe perimenstrual symptom group by more than the cutting score 2.809 and the mild perimenstrual symptom by less or equal than the cutting score 2.809. The correctedness of posterior probability from discriminant equation was 72% as two perimenstrual symptom group classifications.2. Of the 264 women, 139 women(52.7%) were assessed to spasmodic perimenstrual distress group and women(47.3%) were assessed to congestive perimenstrual distress group. Results from the stepwise discriminant analysis showed two factors, such as depression, age, significantly related to perimenstrual distress groups and they explained 8% of the total variance. The linear discriminant equation included two factors related to perimenstrual distress group was showed(Z=-0.084 age-0.776 depression). The cutting score(Z) was -3.759. We classified the spasmodic perimenstrual distress group by more than cutting score -3.759 and the congestive perimenstrual distress group by less or equal than cutting score -3.759. The correctedness of posterior probability from discriminant equation was 65% as two perimenstrual distress group classifications.