404 nurses and nurse-aids rated their experiences of 45 symptoms(Moos' Menstrual Distress Questionnaire) of the menstrual, premenstrual and intermenstrual phase on a 4 point scale separately. The 45 symptoms were inter-related and factor analyzed sepa...
404 nurses and nurse-aids rated their experiences of 45 symptoms(Moos' Menstrual Distress Questionnaire) of the menstrual, premenstrual and intermenstrual phase on a 4 point scale separately. The 45 symptoms were inter-related and factor analyzed separately for each phase. six common clusters of symptoms emerged from 3 phases, which were labeled concentration, motor tension, pain, pleasurable affect, autonomic reactions and water retention.
Four clusters of symptoms emerged from premenstrual phase. These clusters were labeled instabillity, withdrwal reactions, depression and headache. The factor named unpleasurable affect emerged from intermenstrual and menstrual phase. Above findings were differed from the results of Moos' study in which eight basically replicated clusters of symptoms emerged from three phases.
Through discussion of validity of this scale, and differences between results of Moos' and this study, we came to the conclusion that sampling of subjects, prospective longitudinal symptoms reporting, amount of variance in a symptom over the course of menstrual cycle and proper choice of factor analysis method would be salient variables to construct valid scale for measuring menstrual cycle symptoms.