Title: A Study on Knowledge and Practice of Menstrual Hygiene Among Menstruating Women of Age Group 15-44 Yrs in A Rural Area, Tamilnadu

Authors: Vijayakeerthi. R, Kalyani. P, Felix. A.J.W, Govindarajan.P.K

 DOI:  https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v4i10.76

Abstract

Background: Menstruation in women is a normal physiological process and key sign of reproductive health. Poor menstrual hygiene has not yet been recognized as a problem in many developing countries. Proper menstrual hygiene is essential for one’s own well being and development.

Objectives: To assess the knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene in women of age group 15-44 yrs and to find out the relationship between knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene.

Materials and Methods: A community based, cross sectional study done at South Pichavaram, Chidambaram, Tamilnadu among women of reproductive age for a period of 8 months from January to August 2016. Data was collected using validated, structured, pre tested questionnaire and analyzed using SYSTAT12 software.

Results: out of 337 study participants, 29.7% had adequate knowledge about menstruation and menstrual hygiene and 46.6% had good level of menstrual hygiene practice. It was found that there was a positive correlation exists between knowledge level and practice of menstrual hygiene in the women.

Conclusion: Nearly 70% of the women were not having adequate knowledge about menstruation and menstrual hygiene. Nearly half of them were not having good practice during menstruation. Therefore there is a need to increase awareness about menstrual hygiene among the women by giving periodic health education.

Keywords: Reproductive age, menstruation, knowledge, hygiene, practice.

References

1.      William F and Ganong MD. The female Reproductive system. Review of Medical Physiology .Lange 21st Ed.2003:437-451.

2.      Menstrual Hygiene. Feminine Hygiene, Gynaecology and Menstruation Informat-ion, Resources and Products for Dads and Husband. http://menstrualhygiene.com.

3.      Mudey AB, Keshwani N, Mudey GA, Goyal RC. A cross sectional study on the awareness regarding safe and hygienic practices amongst school going adolescent girls in the rural areas of Wardha district. Global journal of Health Science.2010; 2(2):225-231.

4.      Garg R, Goyal S, Gupta S. India moves towards menstrual hygiene: Subsidized sanitary Napkins for Rural Adolescent Girls-Issues and challenges. Maternal child health journal. 2012;16(4):767-774.

5.      Ram R, Bhattacharya SK, Bhattacharya K et al. Reproductive tract infection among female adolescents. Indian journal of Community Medicine. 2006;31(1):32-33.

6.      Dasgupta A, Sarkar M. Menstrual hygiene: how hygienic is the adolescent girl? Indian Journal of Community Medicine.2008; 33(2): 77-80.

7.      S Sangeetha Balamurugan, SS Shilpa, Sheethal Shaji. A community based study on menstrual hygiene among reproductive age group women in a rural area, Tamil Nadu. Journal of Basic and Clinical Reproductive Sciences. 2014;3(2):83-87.

8.      Bhavik Rana, Arpit Prajapati, K.N.Sonaliya, Venu Shah, Mansi Patel, Asha Solanki. An assessment of menstrual hygiene practices amongst adolescent females at Kheda District of Gujarat state, India. Healthline journal.2015;6(1):23-29.

9.      Adhikari P, Kadel B, Dhungel SI, Mandal A .Knowledge and practice regarding menstrual hygiene rural adolescent girls of Nepal. Kathmandu University Medical Journal. 2009; 5(19): 382-386.

10.  Lawan UM, Nafisa Wali Yusuf, Aisha Bala Musa. Menstruation and menstrual hygiene amongst adolescent school girls in Kano, Northwestern Nigeria. African Journal of Reproductive Health. 2010; 14(3):201-207.

11.  Juyal R , Kandpal SD, Semwal J, Negi KS . Practices of Menstrual Hygiene among adolescent girls in a district of Uttarakhand. Indian Journal of Community Health. 2012;24(2):124-128.

12.  Adwitiya Das, Aparajita Dasgupta, Rahul Biswas, Dipanjan Ray, Arnab Ghosal, Trinath Sarkar. Knowledge and practices regarding menstrual management among women in a remote village of Eastern India. International Journal of Biomedical & Medical Research.2014; 5(3):4190-4196.

13.  Kamath R, Ghosh D, Lena A, Chandrasekaran V. A study on knowledge and practices regarding menstrual hygiene among rural and urban adolescent girls in Udupi Taluk, Manipal, India. Global Journal of medicine and Public Health. 2013;2(4):1-9.

14.  Kartik Ramachandra, Sahana Gilyaru, Adarsh Eregowda, Sreekrishna Yathiraja. A study on  knowledge and practices regarding menstrual hygiene among urban adolescent girls. International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics. 2016 ;3(1):142-145.

15.  Patil Sudha Rani. Knowledge and Practices of Menstrual Hygiene among married adolescents and young women in Chittoor District of Andra Pradesh:India. Journal of Nursing and Health Science. 2014;3(2):06-15.

16.  Kamakhya Kumar, Arunima Datta, Arup Bandyopadhyay. Knowledge, problems and practices of adolescent girls during menstruation. Indian Medical Gazatte. 2015;85-88.

17.  NRHM Newsletter, Promotion of menstrual hygiene.2011;6(3). 

18.  Anju Ade, Ramesh Patil. Menstrual Hygiene and Practices of rural adolescent girls of Raichur. International Journal of Biological & Medical Research. 2013;4(2):3014-2017

19.  Hema Priya S, Nandi Partha , Seetharaman N, Narayan k, Anantahasubramanian, Lokeshmaran A. A study of Menstrual Hygiene Practices and associated symptomatic genitourinary illness among adolescent girls in Rural Puducherry. Int.J.Preven.Curat.Comm.Med.2015;1(4):10-19.

Corresponding Author

Dr R .Vijayakeerthi

Department of Community Medicine, Rajah Muthiah Medical College,

Annamalai University, Tamilnadu

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Phone No.: +919043756375