Breast Pain
2 Mar 2008
The University of Portsmouth undertakes a study on Breast Pain
Investigation of Breast Pain in the U.K.
An affliction common to many PMS sufferers - is help at hand?
The University of Portsmouth is planning a study of breast pain, in the hope of finding a cure for the many women who suffer from it.
Claire Bridgman describes her work and asks for NAPS' help:
"Breast pain (mastalgia) is one health complaint that can impact upon the performance, health and well-being of women. The prevalence of mastalgia in Britain ranges from 45% to 60% (Ader and Shriver, 1998). Breast pain can be defined a cyclical mastalgia, where women experience significant swelling and pain the the breast that can last for five days at certain phases of the menstrual cycle; non-cyclical mastalgia, which is not linked to the menstrual cycle and can result in consistent pain to all or part of the breast; or finally exercise related mastalgia, which results from the breast movement associated with activity (Hadi, 2000).
"Current studies are monitoring breast movement during exercise and using a numeral scale to report levels of breast discomfort; however, daily breast discomfort has not been considered. Therefore the University of Portsmouth is conducting a study to assess the occurrence of breast pain in a wide sample of U.K. women.
"This investigation will utilise an existing validated Breast Pain Questionnaire (Carmichael, Bashayan and Nightingale, 2006). This questionnaire can be totally anonymous and it is reported to take less than five minutes to complete. The questionnaire can be found at: http://www.port.ac.uk/breastpain
"Participation in the questionnaire is purely voluntary and participants are free to withdraw at any point. The nature of the investigation will be explained to the participants before completing the questionnaire. Due to the anonymity of the questionnaire, completion of the form will be considered as consent to take part in the study. Participants will be given the opportunity to provide their name and contact details to participate in further studies in the area of breast health, but this will be on a voluntary basis and this information will be completed on a separate form and will not be linked to the participant's questionnaire response. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Jen White and the University of Portsmouth on 023 9284 3085."
THE RESULTS OF THIS RESEARCH WILL HELP US ALL - SO LADIES, DO PARTICIPATE IF YOU CAN
