Dietary Habits and Socio-economic Status on Menstrual Disorders among Young Females: A Study from Northern India

Menstruation, the most important phase of female reproductive cycle, involves many hormonal changes. Hormone production is known to be affected by diet. Poor dietary habits of a female can affect her menstrual cycle, leading to menstrual disorders and pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS). A cross-sectional study was undertaken to analyze the association of dietary habits and socio-economic status with menstrual disorders among the college going girls and young working females of Nothern India during the month of Jan-March, 2013. A total of 100 females were selected, out of 300 surveyed, for this study and everyone answered the given questionnaire. Sedentary lifestyle and western dietary habits led majority of the females (87%) belonging to middle socio-economic status, to have higher prevalence of menstrual disorders. Greater prevalence of menstrual disorders was observed in vegetarian women as compared to non-vegetarian women except for dysmenorrhea. Prevalence of menorrhagia was higher (56.25% vs. 32.69%) in women not taking green salad daily while percentages of menorrhagia (44.68% vs. 43.40%) as well as oligomenorrhea (46.81% vs. 45.28%) were found higher in women not eating fruits daily. A positive association was observed between consumption of junk food (93% of respondents) and menstrual disorders.