THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ABDOMINAL STRETCHING EXERCISE ON MENSTRUAL PAIN LEVEL IN STUDENTS OF SEMESTER VIII PRODI S1 NURSING UNIVERSITY NU SURABAYA

Abstract

Menstrual pain may interference daily activities. One way of non-pharmakological treatmeant to reduce menstrual pain by doing abdominal stretching exercise. The purpose of this study to find out the effectiveness of abdominal stretching exercise against menstrual pain level. Study design is Pre Experimental approaches One -group pre - post test design, the population 15 students of semester VIII who had menstrual pain and willing to become respondents. Using total sampling technique. analysis of data use the Wilcoxon signed rank test with α < 0.05. Study results showed from 15 respondents, most of them 8 (53.3 %) respondents had moderate menstrual pain level before abdominal stretching exercise was given and almost a half 7 (46.7 %) respondents had mild menstrual pain level after abdominal stretching exercise was given. Wilcoxon signed rank test got P=0.002 < α 0,05 so H0 is rejected, means abdominal stretching exercise is effective for decreasing menstrual pain levels. Abdominal stretching exercise effective in decreasing menstrual pain level. Expected nurses can participate in providing health education to perform abdominal stretching exercise as a nonpharmacological therapy in reducing menstrual pain.