A cross sectional study on the knowledge, attitudes and practices towards menstrual cycle and its problems: a comparative study of government and non-government adolescent school girls

Abstract

Background: Young girls up to 20 years of age comprise a quarter of Indian female population. A vast majority of adolescent girls in India are affected by reproductive health issues and menstrual problems are one of them. These problems arise mostly due to false beliefs & poor awareness regarding menstrual cycle. The objective of the study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practices towards menstrual cycle and its problems among school girls. Methods: A cross sectional study among 250 girls (age 13-19 years) each from government and non-government schools of Jodhpur City was carried out by interviewing them with predesigned & pretested questionnaire. Results: Most of the girls of non-government schools considered menarche as a different experience of life (34.8%) and unhygienic (27.6%) while 41.6% of government school girls were scared due to menarche and 30% considered it as unhygienic. 59.6% of non-government school girls knew about menstrual cycle before menarche while 48.8% of government school girls had such knowledge. Mother was the commonest channel of information in both study groups. 12-14 years was the most common age groups in which menarche occurred in both study groups. About 2/3 of non-government school girls were using sanitary pads while only ¼ of government school girls had such practice. High cost was the major reason for not using sanitary pads in Govt. school girls. Pain Abdomen was the commonest complaint faced during menstrual cycle followed by backache. About 4/5th of non-government school girls and about 2/3rd of government school girls attended school during menstrual cycle. All subjects faced some kind of domestic restriction due to disbelief in relation to menstrual cycle. Irritability was reported as most common psychological problem during menstrual cycleConclusions: There is a need for adolescent girls to have accurate and adequate information about menstruation appropriate sanitary and hygienic management.

Menstrual health status and cultural practices of tribal adolescent girls

“…It is very much similar with the findings of Hakim et al, Kapoor et al, Kansal et al and Udayar et al 9,11,13,14 Pandit et al found majority mothers were completed their middle school flowed by primary school, they observed very less illiterate mothers. 8 Nagar et al found majority mothers were completed high school.…”

“…Nuclear families ere prevalent in current study it is similar with Khanna et al Hakim et al, Pandit et al and Palak et al 7,8,11,12 But Nagar found more family members in their study. 10 Current changing demographic feature in India is more number of nuclear families is emerging even in rural tribal settings.…”

“…It is is very much similar with Hakim et al, Khanna et al and Kansal et al 7,9,11 Palak et al found majority were married. This can be attributed to age distribution of study subjects.…”

“…Similar findings were observed in Pandit et al, Kumar et al, Hakim et al, Kapoor et al, Udayar et al, Kshirsagar et al and Thakre et al 8,9,11,13,14,18,24 People need to get educated in order to avoid certain cultural factors which leads to insanitary menstrual hygiene and to decrease school absenteeism.…”

“…Khanna et al observed mainly followed by PMS. 7 Similar findings were observed in study of Hakim et al 11 Battacharya et al found leucorrhoea as a main complaint during cycle followed by pain abdomen, PMS was les observed. 19 Nagar et al and Fakhri et al found PMS as a main complaint.…”