Menstrual hygiene: A study among rural adolescent girls in Katihar.

Dr Rashid Ahmad Khan; Dr Arun Kumar Pandey; Dr Soni Rani

Volume : VIII, Issue : VII, July - 2019

Menstrual hygiene: A study among rural adolescent girls in Katihar.

Dr Rashid Ahmad Khan, Dr Arun Kumar Pandey, Dr Soni Rani

Abstract :

BACKGROUND: Menstruation is an important milestone event in a girl�s life with the beginning of reproductive life. Still, menstruation and menstrual practices are clouded by taboos and socio–cultural restrictions, particularly in rural areas leading to ignorance of adolescent girls regarding menstrual hygiene practices and its scientific facts. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: 1. To find out status of menstrual hygiene practices among adolescent girls. 2.To find out association between different socio–demographic factors and menstrual hygiene. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A cross sectional study was conducted between March 2017 to September 2017 among 400 adolescent girls (10–19 years) of rural area of Katihar. Data were collected from 273 girls, who have achieved menarche, on a pre tested and pre designed questionnaire after taking parental consent and was analysed using MS Excel and Epi info 7. RESULT: Menarche was found to be achieved by the girls in age group 10–16 years, mostly in the age group 12–13 years (69.59%). Among 273 respondents, 82(30.04%) girls were aware about menstruation prior to menarche and the source of information was mostly sister (54.95%) followed by friends (19.05%) and mothers (15.75%). In my study, only 31 (11.36%) girls used sanitary pads during menstruation. Majority of them (95.24%) were using soap and water to clean external genitalia while more than half of girls (69.60%) did not possess a covered toilet. Menstrual hygiene was taken care mostly by those girls, whose mothers were literate (77.42%). Around 260 (95.23%) of the participants followed one or the other cultural restrictions and majority (76.15%) were avoiding religious functions. CONCLUSION: In our study, hygiene during menstruation is not satisfactory hence there is a need to educate the adolescent girls about healthy and hygienic practices during menstruation to prevent the reproductive tract infections.