Menstrual health affecting school absenteeism during menstruation among adolescent girls in Nepal

Abstract

Background: Girls' adolescence, characterized by multiple changes and the significant one, is the initiation of menarche. Despite being the natural regular normal process, there are some menstrual abnormalities female adolescents may encounter in their life. Inability to manage those anomalies efficiently can affect physical, psychological, and emotional well-being, including their education because of school absenteeism. Objectives: The main aim of the study was to assess characteristics of menstruation and examine its association with school absenteeism among adolescent girls in Nepal. Methods: A quantitative, community based cross sectional analytical study was conducted among 317 adolescent girls who had already experienced menstruation in 11 different study sites. The questionnaire was self-administered by adolescent girls which was collected on the same day as data collected. Collected data were entered in Epi-data version 3.1 which was further imported to SPSS for further analysis. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine association between school missed due to menstruation and menstrual characteristics.   Results: The study showed the mean age of menarche as 12.9±0.97 years. The majority of adolescent girls (89.6%) had normal length of menstrual cycle whereas 42.0% of them had moderate amount of bleeding, and 35.3% of them had irregular menstruation cycle. Concerning the menstrual symptoms, adolescent girls experienced depressed mood (30.6%), rapid mood change (24.0%), and dizziness (15.31%). Almost half (46.7%) of adolescent girls had missed school due to menstruation.  Dysmenorrhea (AOR=1.75, 95% CI=1.08-2.83), experience of lower back pain (70.8%, AOR=2.81, 95% CI=1.11-7.10), dizziness (72.0%, AOR=2.82, 95% CI=1.12-7.10), and use of clothes as absorbent (50.6%, AOR=1.87, 95% CI=1.04-3.38) during menstruation were found significantly associated with missing school during that period. Conclusion: Majority of adolescent girls had normal menstruation however there are still many experiencing various menstrual issues which influence school absenteeism during menstruation.