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The problem
Intervention: No intervention tested; this is an observational longitudinal study examining the natural association between adolescent dysmenorrhoea severity and adult chronic pain
Who it was tested with: 1,157 adolescent girls from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), born April 1991 to December 1992, followed from age 8 to 26 years.
Children or communities are compared with a group that did not receive the intervention, or followed over years. This is the design that best separates what the intervention did from everything else that changed.
"Each year from ages 8 to 17 years, children were asked about dysmenorrhoea. At age 15, participants were also asked to describe their experience of dysmenorrhea as mild, moderate, or severe. At age 26 years, participants reported any pain in response to the questions: 'Have you had any aches or pains that have lasted for a day or longer in the past month?' (yes or no); and 'When did the pain start?' (<3 months ago or ≥3 months ago)." This prospective longitudinal design with validated outcome measures at multiple timepoints provides stronger evidence than cross-sectional data for understanding whether adolescent dysmenorrhoea predicts later chronic pain.
This is an observational study establishing association but not causation. Participants lost to follow-up and missing data were addressed by multiple imputation, but attrition rate and completeness not specified. Study limited to UK population of a specific birth cohort, restricting generalisability.
Across countries and designs
40 studies · 42 countries
