Menstrual hygiene management practice and factors affecting it among high school females in Ambo City, Oromia state, Ethiopia, 2018: A cross-sectional mixed method

Abstract

Address: abuzumeran1@gmail.com 2 ¶ =this authors contributed equally to the work. 2 | P a g e I. AbstractBackground: Though menstruation is normal physiology in the females' life, if not managed safely, it can interrupt daily activity or it may lead to health problems. Poor water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities in schools, inadequate puberty education and lack of hygienic menstrual hygiene management items (absorbents) cause girls to experience menstruation as shameful and uncomfortable. This study aimed to assess the extent of unsafe menstrual hygiene practice and factors influencing it among school females in Ambo, Ethiopia.Methods: an institutional-based mixed-method cross-sectional study was conducted from March 01 to 15/2018 to collect data from 364 school females, teachers, and investigators observation.To collect the data, self-administered technique, interview, observational and FGD techniques were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software version 20. Uni-variate, bivariate and multiple logistic regression analysis were done. With 95% CI, the P-value of less than 0.05 was taken as the level of significance.Results: the prevalence of the unsafe menstrual hygiene management practice was 53.6%, which implies urgent response from the stakeholders is of paramount importance. Factors such as the age of the females, frequency of discussing menses with mothers and source of information about menses were variables significantly associated with menstrual hygiene management practice. Conclusion and Recommendation:High numbers of school females' menstrual hygiene management were poorly managed. This implies urgent measure is needed from the stakeholders to solve these problems so that sustainable development goal number 3, 4 and 5 will be achieved. To rid off the current problems which school females are facing, comprehensive and different sectors collaboration is important. Specifically, education sectors, water and sanitation sectors, and health sectors bear the frontline responsibilities.

Menstrual Hygiene Practice among Adolescent Girls in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…In the current study, seven studies (7,12,13,23,27,31,33) reported on school absenteeism associated with menstruation, with one in four girls missing one or more school days during menstruation (PP: 32.03%, 95%CI: 22.65%, 41.40%, I 2 98.2%), this was higher in Amhara region 37.89% (95%CI: 5.45,70.33), followed by Addis Ababa 31.72% (7.12,56.32) and Oromia region 28.38% (19.35,37.41) (Table 4).…”

“…Concerning the quality score of included studies, most articles (77.3%) had low-quality scores (Table 1). In addition, 18 studies (7,12,13,(19)(20)(21)(23)(24)(25)(26)32,33,(35)(36)(37)(38)40,41) performed multivariate analyses to identify factors associated with MHM in Ethiopia (Table 2).…”

“…Overall, the searches identi ed 1045 articles (PubMed (n = 600), Google Scholar (n=58), African Journal Online (n=68), Hinari (n=16), Science Direct (n = 39), ProQuest (n=155), Direct of Open Access Journals (n=11), POPLINE (n=75), Cochrane Library (n = 12), and (n = 11) studies were identi ed through manual search) and 777 duplicates were removed. We screened the titles and abstracts of 268 articles and obtained 39 full texts, of which 22 studies (7,12,13,(19)(20)(21)21,(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41) met the inclusion criteria and included in the nal analysis (Fig 1).…”

“…These 22 studies were conducted in four Ethiopian regions and one administrative town (Addis Ababa). Ten of each study were conducted in Oromia (12,13,19,20,23,32,34,35,37,39), seven in Amhara region (7,25,33,36,38,40,41), three in Addis Ababa (24,27,31), one in SNNPR (South Nations and Nationalities People of the Region) (21) and Harari regions (26). No studies were reported from Tigray, Benishangul Gumiz, Afar, Somali, Gagmbela regions, and Dire Dawa city administrations.…”

“…Studies further point out that, absence of affordable menstrual absorbent materials makes adolescent girls use inappropriate and unhygienic absorbent materials such as newspaper, old rags, underwear, homemade clothes, sponges, dried leaves, or socks to collect menstrual blood and manage their periods (7,(10)(11)(12)(13). And unhygienic MHM predisposes adolescent girls to reproductive tract infections with potential long-term effects on their reproductive health (14).…”