Menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls – A study from urban slum area

Abstract

Background:Adolescence has been recognized as a special period that requires specific attention as it marks the onset of menarche, an important milestone, and hence good hygienic practices during menstruation are crucial to maintain a healthy life.Aims and Objectives:This study was planned to assess knowledge, beliefs, and source of information regarding menstruation, and also to assess hygiene among them.Materials and Method:A cross-sectional study was carried out in urban slum area. Data were collected using pre-tested proforma during the period of 1st June to 31th August 2017. Among the 100 adolescent girls, 72% were between 15 and 19 years. A maximum of 47% were having high school education. About 47% mothers were illiterate; 27% girls had menarche at 14 years and 82% had regular cycles. About 76% had no knowledge of menses before menarche. The source of information was mother in 84%. Only 16% girls commented that bleeding initiated in uterus. About 60% girls used sanitary pad and the rest used cloth pieces. About 22% used water and no soap for hand washing. Multiple restrictions were practiced.Conclusion:This study reported that menstrual hygiene was unsatisfactory among adolescent girls. Therefore, girls should be educated about the facts of menstruation and proper hygienic practices.

Audio- Drama Nursing Intervention Utilizing Peer Education on Menstrual Hygiene and Sickness Management among Blind Adolescents

“…In addition, the majority of the blind adolescent girls had moderate amount of menstrual blood and all of them had minor discomfort during menstrual period. The results were similar to previous study (41) .They reported that age of menarche of the visually challenges adolescent girls was between 11-14 years, their menstruation lasts from 3 to 5 days, all of them had minor alignments during menstruation but two third of them had severe bleeding and irregular menstruation and their interval between menstruations were above 35 days.…”

“…In addition it presented that there were highly statistical significant differences between the blind adolescent girls' knowledge and practice. These findings are congruent with precious study (41) . they stated that there were obvious improvement in mean and standard deviation in knowledge among studied sample between pretest versus posttest I (5.31± 1.03, 13.4 ±0.48 respectively ) and between pretest versus posttest II (5.31±…”

Effect of Peer-Led and Parent-Led Education Interventions on Menstrual Hygiene-Related Knowledge of In-School Adolescent Girls in Ogun State, Nigeria

“…During menstruation, hygiene is an inevitable part of a woman's and a girl's life (Sharma et al, 2019;Coast, Lattof, & Strong, 2019). Various aspects such as physiology, pathology, and psychology of menstruation are associated with the health and well-being of women and adolescent girls; hence, it is a significant issue regarding morbidity and mortality of the population of females (Deshpande, Patil, Gharai, Patil & Durgawale, 2018). Poor menstrual hygiene may lead to problems like bad odour, rashes, and itching in the perineal region, complications like pelvic inflammatory diseases, and also can lead to school absenteeism and increased school dropout (Akinwaare, Akindele, & Oluwatosin, 2016;Goel, Kumar, Meena, & Garg, 2018).…”

Menstrual hygiene and their predictors among school going adolescent girls in Tamil Nadu

“…Studies have shown that poor menstrual hygiene practices in terms of using unhygienic absorbent materials, poor hand washing practices were highly prevalent in India. 3 Several risk factors have been attributed to these vulnerabilities among the adolescent age group. While these issues are highly prevalent among the lower socioeconomic groups, lack of awareness and inadequate access to health care services have been major causes.…”