Associations with physical activity, sedentary behavior, and premenstrual syndrome among Chinese female college students

PURPOSE: Premenstrual syndrome refers to a set of distressing symptoms experienced before the menstrual flow, which can affect female students’ behavior, cognitive abilities, mental health status, and academic performance. Identifying modifiable risk factors is essential to reduce the prevalence college students’ premenstrual syndrome. We examined associations between premenstrual syndrome and physical activity and sedentary behavior in Chinese female college students. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 315 female college students volunteered to participate at a university in Shanghai, China. We measured physical activity and sedentary behavior using the ActiGraph GT3X-BT and assessed premenstrual syndrome using the Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool. The data were statistically analyzed using SPSS 24.0 software, and the primary analysis methods included Kruskal-Wallis test and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Among the 221 female college students who met the inclusion criteria, 148 (67.0%) had PMS while 73 (33.3%) did not. After controlling for confounding variables, moderate physical activity and moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity were significantly associated with premenstrual syndrome. There was no correlation between light-intensity physical activity, sedentary behavior, and premenstrual syndrome in the study. CONCLUSION: Premenstrual syndrome is prevalent among Chinese female college students. Moderate physical activity and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity can be effective in reducing PMS symptoms.