Knowledge and practice of adolescent girls about menstruation: A Cross-sectional study

Abstract— Adolescence constitutes about 20 % of world’s population. Reproductive and sexual health problems are quite common in adolescent girls in India. Bad menstruation hygiene may lead to reproductive health problems. Unsafe menstrual practices expose them to risk thrice as much of contracting RTI, therefore it is important how adolescent girls maintain hygiene during menstruation. This study was conducted to assess knowledge and practices regarding menstruation in adolescent girls. Total 376 eligible adolescent girls were studied, out of that 337 (89.62%) knew about menstruation and out of them 45.10% considered that menstruation starts at puberty, followed by physiological process (34.42%) & sign of reproductive maturity (12.46%) while 39.76% respondents thought it to be due to out flow of dirty blood. Out of 337 who knew about menstrual-cycle, only13.64% knew the fact that conception is not possible during menstrual-cycle. 59.94% respondents had prior knowledge of menarche and majority (51.54%) had this knowledge from their mothers. Out of 325 girls, who were having menstrual period, although 214 (65.84%) were using sanitary napkins but remaining 34.16% were using cloths. When association of this practice with education was evaluated it was found that above primary educated were significantly more (P< 0.001) in using sanitary napkins than girls of up to primary educated (69.47% v/s 40%). When change of material used during menstruation was asked, twice and more was answered in 194 (59.06 %), which was mot found to be associated with education (p=0.65). It was concluded that majority knew about menstruation but practice was not hygienic as they were using cloths and majority of them were less educated. So main emphasis should be given to female education