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subsides with the commencement of menstrual flow, affects women during their reproductive age, and is associated with physical, psychological and An education program was developed and evaluated to determine its efficacy in increasbehavioral changes (Reeder and Martin, 1987). More specific approaches to defining PMS are ing knowledge and decreasing the severity of symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). based on the clustering of symptoms as reflected in the various instruments for measuring PMS. Participants from a sample of 94 schoolgirls aged between 14 and 18 years from four second-Moos (Moos, 1968) developed the Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) which categorizes ary schools in Hong Kong were assigned to either the experimental or control group. Imme-47 perimenstrual symptoms into eight scales including pain, water retention, negative affect, diately following the education program, the schoolgirls in the experimental group had signiautonomic reaction, impaired concentration, behavioral change, arousal and control. Abraham ficantly increased knowledge scores as measured by the Premenstrual Syndrome Knowledge (Abraham, 1983) modified Moos' MDQ and included only the 19 symptoms that were found to Questionnaire. Three months following the education program, schoolgirls in the experihave the greatest changes premenstrually. Thus Abraham's Menstrual Symptom Questionnaire mental group reported having a significant reduction in total PMS scores and three of the (MSQ) had four common subgroups of PMS: PMT-A consisting of behavior changes, PMT-H subscale scores as measured by a translated version of Abraham's Menstrual Symptom associated with symptoms of water and salt retention, PMT-C characterized by craving, and PMT-D Questionnaire. In addition, no significant differences were found for the control group on preincludes symptoms of depression. The Premenstrual Assessment Form (PAF) developed by test and post-test PMS scores suggesting that the education program could have been the Halbreich et al. (Halbreich et al., 1982) comprises 95 symptoms which are grouped into premenstrual source of the reduction in PMS symptoms of the experimental group of young adolescents girls. physical, mood and behavioral changes. Eighteen categories could be identified including major and
Janita Pak Chun Chau (Wed,) studied this question.