Effect of eating habits on menstrual problems among adolescent girls: A cross-sectional survey

One of the most significant moments in a teenage girl’s life is her menarche, which denotes the passage from puberty to maturity. Menstruation, a natural process of hormonal changes in a woman’s body, are affected by dietary habits. Menstrual health is affected by the food habits, which can lead to different kinds of menstrual problems. Studies find that the primary causes of menstruation problems, which are becoming more common in young girls, are junk/fast food consumption, a lack of physical activity and meal skipping especially breakfast. A cross-sectional study was conducted among the 100 adolescent girls ‘urban slums of Raipur city. A pretested, semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information about socioeconomic data, height, weight, BMI, eating habits, fast food consumption, menstrual history, menstrual abnormalities and food skipping behavior. The data were manually analyzed and tabulated in percentages. It was shown that 64% of participants had irregular menstrual cycles and 36% had normal ones. 72% of the population reported having dysmenorrhea during their menstrual cycle. Over 75 percent of the individuals consume junk food, and 76 percent of them skip meals. In particular, 61% of the respondents skipped breakfast, 14% skipped lunch, and 1% skipped dinner. The consumption of fast food and meal skipping were found to be significantly correlated with individuals' menstrual cycles in the current study. It was found that adjustments, particularly lowering junk food intake and encouraging healthy eating habits, should be prioritized for adolescent girls to have a healthy menstrual cycle.