National Monitoring for Menstrual Health and Hygiene: Is the Type of Menstrual Material Used Indicative of Needs Across 10 Countries?

Smith, Annie D.; Muli, A.; Schwab, Kellogg J.; Hennegan, Julie

doi:10.3390/ijerph17082633

Cited by 20 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…A recent study using the PMA2020 data found that 26.4% of those exclusively using sanitary pads report unmet material needs. This statistic was skewed towards disadvantaged groups [ 2 ]. This may be the reason for women and girls alternating between products, depending on whether they are at home or in public, and for multiple options listed by the participants of the PMA2020 survey.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We focused on data collected among women aged 15 to 49 who experienced a menstrual period in the last three months and reported on their MHM as well as other behaviors related to family planning, reproduction, fertility and sexual activity. This section of the survey was administered by a female enumerator in auditory privacy to protect the participants and to secure an adequate response rate [ 2 ]. Our analytical sample was restricted to those with no missing observations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Health education and identification and treatment of menstrual disorders will also enable women and girls to safely and appropriately manage their menstrual health [ 2 ]. Yet, the omnipresent stigmatization of menstruation and entrenched social norms in some parts of the world limit the adequate support to menstruating persons and results in MHM being a multi-sectoral policy challenge, affecting sexual and reproductive health, schooling and education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and more.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding Period Poverty: Socio-Economic Inequalities in Menstrual Hygiene Management in Eight Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Rossouw

Ross

2021

IJERPH

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Menstrual hygiene management and health is increasingly gaining policy importance in a bid to promote dignity, gender equality and reproductive health. Effective and adequate menstrual hygiene management requires women and girls to have access to their menstrual health materials and products of choice, but also extends into having private, clean and safe spaces for using these materials. The paper provides empirical evidence of the inequality in menstrual hygiene management in Kinshasa (DRC), Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rajasthan (India), Indonesia, Nigeria and Uganda using concentration indices and decomposition methods. There is consistent evidence of wealth-related inequality in the conditions of menstrual hygiene management spaces as well as access to sanitary pads across all countries. Wealth, education, the rural-urban divide and infrastructural limitations of the household are major contributors to these inequalities. While wealth is identified as one of the key drivers of unequal access to menstrual hygiene management, other socio-economic, environmental and household factors require urgent policy attention. This specifically includes the lack of safe MHM spaces which threaten the health and dignity of women and girls.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding Period Poverty: Socio-Economic Inequalities in Menstrual Hygiene Management in Eight Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Rossouw

Ross

2021

IJERPH

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“…Even during the night, open defecation itself is difficult for women and exposes them to risks of violence [ 16 , 17 , 19 ]. In schools, lack of WASH facilities, sanitary pads, and space to timely change their pads forces girls to interrupt classes, fall behind on assignments, and often leave school early, which subsequently affects their school attendance and performance [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ]. Similarly, other SEG also lack access to inclusive (accessible) toilet facilities which forces them to travel to far places to look for open space [ 12 , 30 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in Relation to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia

Assefa¹,

Sherif²,

Sluijs³

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The main purpose of the study was to deepen the understanding of gender and social inclusion in the context of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. An explorative qualitative study was conducted in three districts of the Oromia region using gender analysis frameworks. Twenty-one key informant interviews and nine focus group discussions were conducted. Findings showed 52% of households in the study area have basic service level water, 29% have basic service level sanitation, and 14% have basic service level hygiene. Women, girls, and people living with disability disproportionately experience poor access to quality WASH services. Women and girls participate in unequal domestic labor related to water management which often exposes them to discrimination and violence such as rape, abduction, and assault. Overall, women, girls, and other socially excluded groups are rarely consulted and engaged by local actors. This results in incongruent policy and political commitment which limits action at the grassroots level. Integrating gender equality and inclusion efforts into local governance agendas can help to increase access to and the quality of WASH services. These efforts must advocate for moving beyond gender parity to promote gender transformative approaches and inclusion to realize better WASH services for the communities they serve.

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“…The last menstrual period was also selected to be comparable to national data. Nationally representative survey programs, including Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 (PMA2020), and the Multiple Cluster Indicator Surveys (MICS) have both collected data on menstrual experiences related to the last menstrual period [16,17].…”

Section: Recall Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Menstrual Practices Questionnaire (MPQ): development, elaboration, and implications for future research

Hennegan

Nansubuga²,

Akullo³

et al. 2020

Global Health Action

Self Cite

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High-quality evidence is needed to inform policies and programmes aiming to improve menstrual health. Quantitative studies must address the many evidence gaps in this field, and practitioners have increased monitoring and evaluation efforts to track their progress. A significant barrier to improving the rigor of this work is the lack of comprehensive and comparable measures to capture core concepts. The Menstrual Practices Questionnaire (MPQ) is a new tool to support comprehensive and standardised assessment of the activities undertaken in order to collect, contain, and remove menstrual blood from the body in selfreport surveys. The questionnaire is freely available online for download and can be adapted for use across contexts and age groups. In this article, we describe the purpose of the MPQ as a best-practice tool to align the description of menstrual practices and provide a foundation for further question refinement. We outline the development of the tool using systematic review of qualitative studies of menstrual experiences, audit of measures used in the study of menstrual health and hygiene, survey of experts, insights from past research, and examples from piloted questions in a survey of adolescent girls in Soroti, Uganda. We describe the identification of menstrual practices as a priority for measurement, coverage of practices included in the MPQ, and justify the inclusion of location-specific questions. For each section of the questionnaire, we outline key reasons for the inclusion of practice items alongside elaboration for users to help inform item selection. Finally, we outline priorities for future research to refine the assessment and reporting of menstrual practices, including the identification of minimum reporting requirements for population characteristics to facilitate comparison across studies, testing the extent to which experiences during the most recent menstrual period reflect those over longer time periods, and further exploration of biases in self-report.

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National Monitoring for Menstrual Health and Hygiene: Is the Type of Menstrual Material Used Indicative of Needs Across 10 Countries?

Cited by 20 publications

References 18 publications

Understanding Period Poverty: Socio-Economic Inequalities in Menstrual Hygiene Management in Eight Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Understanding Period Poverty: Socio-Economic Inequalities in Menstrual Hygiene Management in Eight Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion in Relation to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia

The Menstrual Practices Questionnaire (MPQ): development, elaboration, and implications for future research

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