Effects of an educational programme on adolescents with premenstrual syndrome

An education program was developed and evaluated to determine its efficacy in increasing knowledge and decreasing the severity of symptoms of premenst rual syndrome (PMS). Participants from a sample of 94 schoolgirls aged betw een 14 and 18 years from four secondary schools in Hong Kong were assigned to either the experimental or control group. Immediately following the educ ation program, the schoolgirls in the experimental group had significantly increased knowledge scores as measured by the Premenstrual Syndrome Knowled ge Questionnaire. Three months following the education program, schoolgirls in the experimental group reported having a significant reduction in total PMS scores and three of the subscale scores as measured by a translated ve rsion of Abraham's Menstrual Symptom Questionnaire. In addition, no signifi cant differences were found for the control group on pretest and post-test PMS scores suggesting that the education program could have been the source of the reduction in PMS symptoms of the experimental group of young adoles cents girls.