Objectives: Primary dysmenorrhea is a common health problem that affects women’s quality of life. This study aimed to determine the relationship between dysmenorrhea, dietary acid load (DAL), empirical dietary inflammatory index (eDII) and Literature-Based Adherence to Mediterranean diet Score (MEDI-LITE).
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2021 and January 2022, with 105 university students, including 57 with primary dysmenorrhea and 48 without dysmenorrhea. The data were collected via a survey form including questions about the participants’ sociodemographic characteristics and obstetric/gynecological histories and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Anthropometric measurements of the participants were performed, their food consumption record was received by FFQ and the DAL, eDII and MEDI-LITE scores were calculated.
Results: The independent samples t-test was used to compare the participants’ dietary indices. A linear regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between dysmenorrhea, DAL, eDII and MEDI-LITE. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. None of the dietary indices were significantly different between groups (p= 0.174, 0.548 and 0.256 respectively for DAL, eDII and MEDI-LITE). According to the linear regression analysis, there was not a significant relationship between dysmenorrhea and any of the dietary indices (p-value >0.05).
Conclusions: In conclusion, dietary acid load, empirical dietary inflammatory index and Literature-Based Adherence to Mediterranean diet Score appear not to predict primary dysmenorrhea. Further research is necessary to confirm and expand these findings.
Funding Sources: The author(s) declared that no grants were involved in supporting this work.
