Background Primary dysmenorrhea (PD) is a gynecological disorder that affects the quality of life and academic performance of women of reproductive age. It is managed with oral nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory medications, which may result in side effects that could be long term. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a noninvasive and cost‐effective procedure that does not require drugs in pain management, but there are low awareness and limited use of TENS among young women. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and perceived readiness to use TENS for PD among female undergraduates of the University of Ibadan. Method A descriptive cross‐sectional study was conducted with a structured self‐administered questionnaire to gather data from 289 females with the use of a multistage sampling technique. The questionnaire was used to measure respondents’ knowledge of TENS, perceived readiness to use TENS, and barriers to its utilization, along with sociodemographic characteristics. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Version 25.0, using descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate statistics at a 0.05 significance level. Result The mean age of the respondents was 22.4 ± 2.6 years. More than half of the respondents (79.9%) had poor knowledge of TENS, although over half (59.9%) of respondents were willing to use TENS for PD management. The main factors inhibiting the use of TENS were cost (67.1%) and limited awareness (68.5%). Logistic regression analysis showed that respondents with a monthly allowance of ₦5000–₦49,000 were 0.362 times less likely to have positive readiness for TENS. In contrast, the odds of positive readiness of TENS were 3.246 times higher among Adult Education female students (OR = 3.246, p = 0.020) and 2.693 times higher among Economics female students (OR = 2.693, p = 0.038) when compared to students of Veterinary Medicine. Conclusion This study showed that most of the respondents had poor knowledge about the use of TENS. However, most of the participants were willing to use it. Limited awareness, financial constraints, and accessibility issues were identified as major barriers to the utilization of TENS. It is therefore important to enhance health education and digital literacy among female undergraduate students to encourage them to use online sources to learn about innovative, nonpharmacological options such as TENS for improving reproductive health and overall well‐being.
Ojo et al. (Thu,) studied this question.