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