The Effect of Pilates Exercise to Hamper Primary Dysmenorrhea in 18-21 Years Old Adolescents

Abstract

Dysmenorrhea is the manifestations of pain that appear during menstrual cycle. The symptom of dysmenorrhea is cramp in stomach that happen between 24 to 36 hours. The symptom will disturb the activity of woman. There are two kinds of dysmenorrhea; they are primary dysmenorrhea and secondary dysmenorrhea, Primary dysmenorrhea is experienced by 6075%

of young women. About 75% of women experience mild cramping or moderate intensity and the 25% of women feel severe pain. In Indonesia, the incidence of dysmenorrhea is about 64.25 (Santoso, 2008) [1]. Pilates exercise is a type of physical exercise focusing in strengthening muscle, training flexibility, muscle control, improving posture, and breathing. The study is done to know the effect of pilates exercise for hampering primary dysmenorrhea in 18-21 years old adolescents. The research method is quasi experimental with control group design. The respondents were divided into two groups. The first group was the treatment group that was trained to do pilates exercise for about four weeks and the second group was the control group with no treatment. The analytical statistic was conducted with SPSS by using Wilcoxon test and Mann Whitney test. The pilates exercise is considered effective to hamper dysmenorrhe in 18-21 years old adolescents. After using wilcoxon test in the treatment group, it was obtained that the value was 0.001; while, the value was 0.033 in the control group. By applying Mann Whitney test, it was obtained that the p value was 0.001, showing the existence of different influences between treatment group and control group for the increase of dysmenorrhea in 18-21 years old adolescents. The pilates exercise is effective to hamper menstrual pain in 18-21 years old adolescents.