A cross-sectional study on menstrual hygiene practices among school going adolescent girls (10-19 years) of Government Girls Inter College, Saifai, Etawah

Abstract

Background: Menstrual hygiene is a key concern of adolescent health. Females spend around six to seven years of their lives menstruating. Still the menstrual hygiene management (MHM) is mostly neglected. Menstrual hygiene is a taboo; even females are uncomfortable discussing and educating their daughters about this topic. To understand the problem faced by females during menstruation specially in their adolescent age this study was conducted. This study was done to find out knowledge about menstrual hygiene, to study hygiene related practices among school going adolescent girls of Government Girls Inter College (GGIC), Saifai, Etawah.Methods: School based cross-sectional study was undertaken among the adolescent school going girls of GGIC, who were purposively selected. All girls of between the age group of 10 19 years who have attained menarche were selected and the sample size came out to be 212.Results: The mean age of attainment of menarche was 13.17 years with majority of girls having no idea about menstruation before menarche (76.4%). 48.6% girls used only sanitary pads as the absorbent material. It was concluded that there is significant association between the absorbent material used and the socio-economic status of the family (p=0.03173).Conclusions: There is a need of accurate and adequate information about menstruation and its effective management. The restrictions which are imposed on girls during menstruation should be understood and dealt in a proper way. Thus this study was conducted.