Knowledge, Attitude and Socio-cultural Beliefs of Adolescent Girls towards Menstruation

Abstract

Introduction: Knowledge regarding physiology of menstruation and hygienic practices are poor in adolescent girls. Deep rooted social beliefs make their attitude more negative.Material and Methods: In a hospital based cross sectional study, one hundred adolescent girls who have attained menarche were interviewed with a pre-validated semi-structured questionnaire to assess their knowledge, experiences, effect of mother’s education on menstrual hygienic practices and factors affecting their positive and negative attitude.Results: Mean age of menarche was 13.28 (SD ± 1.42) years. Mothers were the first informant to 56% girls. Only 11% girls knew that menstruation is a normal biological phenomenon and 28% girls were mentally prepared before menarche. Readymade pads were being used by 46% girls. Most girls were forced to follow various restrictions during menstruation. Maternal education was significantly associated with use of readymade pads (p-value 0.031). Significant positive correlation was seen between premenarchal preparedness to pleasantness (r = 0.3215; p = 0.001) while negative correlation was found between preparedness to secrecy (r = -0.1549; p = 0.124), annoyance (r = -0.1421; p = 0.158) and worrying thoughts (r = - 0.2074; p = 0.038). Negative correlation was also seen between years of experience with menses to secrecy and worrying thought (r = -0.0162; p = 0.872 and r = -0.1033; p = 0.864 respectively).Conclusion: There is significant lack of knowledge, poor hygienic practices and negative attitude among adolescent girls that needs to be addressed by educating them and their mothers.J Nepal Paediatr Soc 2016;36(1):42-49

Chaupadi during menstruation still a major community health challenge: perspective from Mid-Western Nepal

“…Similar result were found in another study where the mean age at menarche was found to be 13.1 year [3] and13.28 years [12]. In a study from Saudi Arebia, the mean menarcheal age was quite low (12.08 year) [13].…”

“…Inanother study it was found that 75% wrap in paper/polythene bag and dispose [12]. In this study, 60.6% used to clean genitalia during menstruation with soap-water where as in another study 66.54% girls were using water to clean genitals during menstruation [15].…”

“…In another study, most common informant was mother (39.3%) [3]. Mothers were the first informant to 56% girls [12]. This study found that 45.9% had negative belief of use of old clean cloth during menstrual flow.…”

“…This study found that different traditional practice followed were use of separate utensils (64.2%), not allowed to see sun (75.8%), no permission to go outside (71.6%), no permission to cook food (56%), restriction of usual food (56.9%), banned for worshiping god (74.3%), used to eat in separate place (27.5%), not allowed to sleep in usual bedroom (27.5%) and restrict to touch male members (28.4%). Different studies from different places found that 55.7% not allowed to cook/touch utensils [3], 43% not allowed to enter kitchen [12], 91.6% restricted from attending religious functions [3], 70% not allowed to enter temple or participate in religious activities [3,12]. About 20 % were not allowed to touch/sit/talk with male member of family [3], 55.7% not allowed to do household chores, 16.4% forced to go away from home or in corner of room [3], 58.4% not allowed to cook and visit temples [7].…”

A Literature Review: Urban Teenagers' Readiness to Improve the Quality of Life Toward the Menarche

“…The results of other studies also mentioned that 99 out of 100 respondents said that they were worried about menstruation. As many as 71% of girls lack of knowledge and they were not psychologically prepared about menstruation and 72% was lack of information about how to use pads before menarche (Kapoor & Khari, 2016).…”