An experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of pelvic rocking exercises versus aerobic exercises on primary dysmenorrhea among adolescent girls in a selected college at puducherry

Adolescence is a transition phase passing through between a child and an adult. During this period, rapid physical growth and physiological as well as psychological changes, occurs. Primary dysmenorrhea is a common menstrual complaint with a major impact on women's quality of life, work productivity and health-care utilization. The prevalence of primary dysmenorrhea varies between 16% and 91% in women of reproductive age, with severe pain in 2–29% of the women. The prevalence of dysmenorrhea varies all over the world. On a Global scale, more than 50% of post-pubescent menstruating women are affected by dysmenorrhea with 10–12% of them having severe dysmenorrhea. In India, dysmenorrhea incidence is 33.5% among adolescent girls. True experimental design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was only adolescent girls with primary dysmenorrhea. 60 samples were selected by simple random sampling technique, 30 in each group, group I received pelvic rocking exercises and group II received aerobic exercises. Pre-test was done using structured questionnaire and assessment of level of pain perception by numerical pain rating scale. After pelvic rocking exercises for group I and aerobic exercises for group II, level of pain perception was assessed using the numerical pain rating scale. The main conclusion of the present study was all adolescents girls with primary dysmenorrhea reported moderate and severe pain on numerical pain rating scale before intervention. Pelvic rocking exercises and aerobic exercises were effective on menstrual pain perception in both group I and group II. While comparing the effectiveness of pelvic rocking exercises and aerobic exercises, result shows that Wilcoxon test of group I and group II was -4.748 and -4.848, respectively. It indicates that there was variation in the level of pain reduction in group II than group I. thus the study concludes that aerobic exercises is effective on reduction of menstrual pain perception among adolescent girls with primary dysmenorrhea.