How prepared and aware are young rural girls about the menstrual health and hygiene
RUTUJA UTTAM ARGADE
, Dr.Pallavi Chicholikar
Keywords—Adolescent girl, menstruation, menstrual hygiene, disposal methods, misperceptions.
ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Menstruation and menstrual practices are still clouded by taboos and socio-cultural restrictions resulting in adolescent girls remaining ignorant of the scientific facts and hygienic health practices, which sometimes result into adverse health outcomes. METHODOLOGY: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among 152 adolescent girls of a secondary school situated in the field practice area of Rural population of ambegaon taluka from Pune district from Maharashtra, with the help of a self made questionare . Data were analyzed statistically by simple proportions. RESULTS: Out of 152 respondents, 77(50.7%)of them considered menstruation was a normal phenomenon, where 21(13.8%)considered it as a curse given by god,54(35.5%)considered it was a pathological condition.16(10.5%) of them perceived that it is not allowed to pray god or visit temple during menstruation, 67 (44.1%) of them perceived all of them i.e., not allowed to touch others, not allowed to go to kitchen and not allowed to pray god or visit temple; and 69(45.4%) of them perceived none of the options above.10(6.6%)were using absorbent material, during menstruation 140(92.1%) use sanitary pads, and 2(1.3%)use menstrual cup. Subjects using sanitary pad 58(38.2%)chose burning as the disposal method, while 17(11.2%)chose digging in the ground and 77(50.7%)throw it in dustbin.140(92.1%) think that the above ways are environment friendly and 12(7.9%) think that those are not environment friendly. CONCLUSIONS: The study concludes that even if the population was educated still half of the rural girls do not think menstruation as a normal phenomenon and still follow the misperceptions during menstruation. Many of them do not do anything for the pain experienced during menstruation. Almost all of the population has heard about the menstruation but the information and the practices they follow is not adequate. Only negligible percent of the population are aware about the menstrual cup or recent advances that can be used for menstruation. The use of sanitary pad is more and are not aware about the right techniques about its disposal and harmful effects and do not think that the techniques they practice are not environment friendly. Thus, the above findings reinforce the need to encourage safe and hygienic practices among the adolescent girls and bring them out of traditional beliefs, misconceptions restrictions regarding menstruation.
"How prepared and aware are young rural girls about the menstrual health and hygiene", IJSDR - International Journal of Scientific Development and Research (www.IJSDR.org), ISSN:2455-2631, Vol.7, Issue 9, page no.602 - 612, September-2022, Available :https://ijsdr.org/papers/IJSDR2209100.pdf
Volume 7
Issue 9,
September-2022
Pages : 602 - 612
Paper Reg. ID: IJSDR_201635
Published Paper Id: IJSDR2209100
Downloads: 000347279
Research Area: Health Science
Country: Pune, Maharashtra, India
ISSN: 2455-2631 | IMPACT FACTOR: 9.15 Calculated By Google Scholar | ESTD YEAR: 2016
An International Scholarly Open Access Journal, Peer-Reviewed, Refereed Journal Impact Factor 9.15 Calculate by Google Scholar and Semantic Scholar | AI-Powered Research Tool, Multidisciplinary, Monthly, Multilanguage Journal Indexing in All Major Database & Metadata, Citation Generator
Publisher: IJSDR(IJ Publication) Janvi Wave
