Socio-Demographic Determinants and their Influence on Menstruation-Related Knowledge and Attitude Among Adolescent School Girls in Tirupati District, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Menstrual health is still a significant health issue amongst adolescent girls due to many problems which are caused by lack of awareness, cultural beliefs and lack of good hygiene practices. The current research examines the effect of socio-demographic determinants on knowledge, attitude, and hygiene behavior related to menstruation amongst adolescent girls attending government high schools in the Tirupati District of Andhra Pradesh, India. The quantitative cross-sectional study design was employed with an initial enrollment of 435 adolescent girls, yielding a final analyzed sample size of 400 between 12 to 17 years old from six government high schools. The data collection instrument used was a structured and pre-tested questionnaire addressing socio-demographic variables, menstrual knowledge, attitudes and hygiene behaviors. Results showed that education levels had a significant effect on menstrual health with class levels strongly associated with menstrual status (χ² = 97.768, p < 0.001), physiology knowledge (χ² = 33.721, p < 0.001), practices on pain management (χ² = 30.763, p < 0.001) and number of times pads were changed (χ² = 25.842, p < 0.002). Though there was a high level of awareness with regard to menstruation since 94.3% of the respondents demonstrated correct knowledge about puberty and 79.3% knew about the physical changes that occur in adolescence, yet a large gap between knowledge and practice was seen as 44.3% felt that pads do not need to be changed during menstruation. Awareness alone was not sufficient to ensure good hygiene practices and thus the need for intervention programmes in schools targeting menstrual health of the adolescent girls is highlighted through the study results.