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Effect of zinc supplementation on quality of life and sleep quality in young women with premenstrual syndrome: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

  • General Gynecology
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Abstract

Introduction

Premenstrual syndrome is a prevalent disorder affecting a large number of women in their reproductive ages. Nutritional importance of zinc has been known for a long time and studies have shown that zinc can positively affect psychological disorders.

Purpose

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of zinc supplementation on quality of life and sleep quality of young women diagnosed with premenstrual syndrome.

Methods

This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was carried out on 60 young university women that were allocated into two groups of intervention who took 30 mg/day of elemental zinc or placebo for three months. Pre- and post-intervention, participants completed the questionnaires of quality of life and Pittsburgh sleep quality.

Results

After supplementation, quality of life score in the intervention group was increased (+ 9.185 ± 7.29, P < 0.001), however, in comparison with the control group, results were not significant; Physical aspects of quality of life score were significantly enhanced (+ 5.55 ± 3.71 vs. + 0.13 ± 2.87, P < 0.001). Sleep quality was marginally improved just in the zinc group (− 1.48 ± 4.12, P = 0.07).

Conclusion

Zinc supplementation for 12 weeks had beneficial effects on physical aspects of quality of life in young women with premenstrual syndrome.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank all the participants who kindly cooperated in the trial. This study was extracted from Fatemeh Jafari’s MSc dissertation that was approved and supported by a granted from Vice-Chancellor for Research, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences under the registration code: (IR.MUI.REC.1396.3.247).

Funding

This study was financially supported by a grant from the Vice-chancellor for Research of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (code: 39627).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food Science, Food Security Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Fatemeh Jafari, Armin Farhang & Reza Amani

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Mohammad Javad Tarrahi

Authors
  1. Fatemeh Jafari
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  2. Mohammad Javad Tarrahi
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  3. Armin Farhang
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  4. Reza Amani
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Contributions

FJ: Developed the project and did the data collection, Manuscript writing, RA: Proposed the subject, supervised the project development and edited the manuscript. MJT: Did the data analysis, AF: Helped with lab works.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Reza Amani.

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Ethical approval

All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 (in its most recently amended version). The study protocol was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee at the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (code: IR.MUI.REC.1396.3.247) and it was registered in the official website for Iranian registration of clinical trials (https://www.irct.ir) under the registration number IRCT20180215038738N1.

Informed consent

Written Informed consents were obtained from all participants for all the procedures and to allow data collection and analysis for research purpose and publication.

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None.

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Jafari, F., Tarrahi, M.J., Farhang, A. et al. Effect of zinc supplementation on quality of life and sleep quality in young women with premenstrual syndrome: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Arch Gynecol Obstet 302, 657–664 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-020-05628-w

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