An Observational Study on Menstrual hygiene Practices among Adolescents girls attending Zilla Parishad High School at Kommadi Village in Visakhapatnam

Satyanarayana Raju Mudunooru*

Abstract

Abstract Background: Under RMNCH+A strategy, adolescent health program is relatively a new concept, particularly for female gender, and has been considered to be a continuum of health services up to adolescent girls. The priority interventions among adolescent girls are, nutrition, Adolescent Friendly Health clinics (AFHCs), Counselling, Menstrual hygiene and preventive health checkups. Menstrual hygiene component has been taken for the present study among the adolescent girls in a Zilla Parishad High School aged 10 to 19 years. Objective: To study the association of various socio- economic and cultural practices influencing the usage of sanitary napkins by menstruating adolescent school girls. Materials and Methods: Cross sectional study among menstruating adolescent girls in a Zilla Parishad High School at Kommadi village. 198 adolescent girls were randomly selected for study using semi structured questionnaire. Each menstruating girl is questioned categorically (yes/no) as per the structured questionnaire covering socio economic status, literacy of mother, awareness about ASHA etc. Appropriate statistical tests like frequencies, percentages and chi-square tests are applied to analyse the collected data. Results: Socio-demographic factors of the target population in the community from where the adolescent girls attending zilla Parishad High school were subjected to study and found possession of white card by the family, Awareness about ASHA, acquaintance with Self-help group, Literacy of mother, adopting FP methods in the family, OTC drug usage (though not recommended) have statistically significant effect on the usage of sanitary napkin. Conclusion: the usage of sanitary napkin replacing the traditional home-made cloth is highly essential for proper menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls attending the school regularly without drop out. The role of ASHA workers and other paramedical staff in the community cannot be undermined. Keywords: AFHC; Adolescent Friendly Health Clinic; Adolescents; India; RKSK; Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram;