A Study of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Menstrual Hygiene among Adolescent Teenage Girls in and Around Anantapur Town

Abstract

Menstrual hygiene is defined as the principle of maintaining the cleanliness of the body during menstrual flow. It requires basic facilities such as appropriate clothes, soakage material, water, soap, and toilet facilities with privacy. Many studies have revealed that most adolescent girls had incomplete and inaccurate information about menstrual hygiene and physiology. It also revealed that mothers, television, friends, teachers, and relatives were the main sources that provided information on menstruation to adolescent girls. In our study, most of the girls belong to the age group of 15 – 17 that is 448 participants are from that age group which comprises about 89% and they mostly belong to intermediate which is around 442 students (88.4%). 90.6% of the girls knew that menstruation occurs only in females and 88% of the girls aware that the best sanitary products are pads and only 39.6% of girls knew about menstruation before menarche. It was observed that only 37.2% of girls knew that infection would occur if they don’t clean their vagina regularly during their menstruation. Maximum that is 304 (60.8%) girls responded for dysmenorrhoea in the present study. The majority of these responses were in the age group of 13–15 years. the knowledge on menstruation and menstrual hygiene was found to be unsatisfactory although the practices were noted to be good. The majority of girls attained menarche in the study. Menstrual hygiene is an issue that needs to be addressed at all levels. In our study majority of the mothers were found to be illiterates, as mothers are the first informant to the majority of adolescent girls the health education actives can be extended to the mothers to improve awareness.