The abstract is read at the publisher; the summary is JClub's.
Dysmenorrhoea affected 75.4% (95%CI 71.7–78.9) of 863 university staff and students in South Africa, with 53% reporting moderate and 31% severe symptoms.
- Why it matters: Limited South African evidence leaves gaps in how dysmenorrhoea knowledge and sociocultural beliefs relate to menstrual pain experiences and education needs.
- What they did: In a cross-sectional survey, 578 current or past menstruators and others completed dysmenorrhoea knowledge items and an adapted WaLIDD questionnaire, plus 246 free-text responses analyzed via reflexive thematic analysis.
- The result: Menstruators showed higher dysmenorrhoea knowledge than non-menstruators (80.4% vs 55.3%, p<0.001), and 85.1% wanted more education; themes indicated pain normalization, competing explanations, and symptom management shaped by intersecting sociocultural and biomedical views.
The findingWhy it mattersWhat they didThe result
AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.