Prevalence and impact of cyclic mastalgia in a United States clinic-based sample☆,☆☆,★,★★,♢
Section snippets
Participants
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center Institutional Review Board approved this research. A convenience sample of women seen in the obstetrics and gynecology clinic at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was recruited to participate in the study. Clinic staff were instructed to solicit participation from all patients checking in at the appointment desk and to obtain informed consent from each participant. To minimize potential recall difficulties, only women <55 years old (n = 1171) were included in
Sample demographics
Participants ranged in age from 18 to 54 years; mean age was 33.1 years, SD 9.3 years. The sample was 48.5% white and 40.3% black; 71.5% were married. Forty percent had college degrees or postgraduate education; 5% had not finished high school.
The most commonly listed reasons for the clinic appointment were checkup (23.7%), Papanicolaou smear (20.9%), and follow-up visit (5.3%). Only 20 women listed breast-related reasons for the appointment: biopsy (n = 8), breast lump (n = 6), breast
Comment
The reported prevalence of premenstrual breast pain or tenderness is remarkably consistent across samples and among subgroups of women. Although our 69% prevalence rate is comparable to rates reported in the British literature, it is higher than the 41% reported by a previous U.S. study. This difference may result from the different questions asked in the two studies. Boyle et al.3 asked only whether women had breast pain; we asked women to specify swelling, tenderness, or pain or other
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Cited by (0)
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From the Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences,a and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Walter Reed Army Medical Center.b
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Supported in part by a Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences grant (D.N.A.).
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The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private ones of the authors and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Department of Defense, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, or the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences.
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Reprint requests: Deborah N. Ader, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814-4799.
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