As published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, a team of researchers concluded that menstrual cramps, or dysmenorrhea, may be worsened by exposure to air pollutants.
For the study, researchers at the China Medical University Hospital in Taiwan assessed the health data of close to 300,000 female participants between the ages of 16 and 55, derived from Taiwan’s Longitudinal Health Insurance Database.
“All participants were followed from January 1, 2000 until the diagnosis of dysmenorrhea, withdrawal from National Health Insurance, or December 31, 2013,” the study reads.
“Furthermore, air pollutants were categorized into quartiles with three cut-off points (25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles). The Cox regression model was used to calculate the hazard ratios of dysmenorrhea.”
The study concluded the following: “Our results showed that women would have higher dysmenorrhea incidences while exposure to high concentrations of NO, NO2, NOx, CO, and PM2.5.”
The original study was published online on June 17th, 2021.
