ANNOUNCEMENTS
Introduction: Disposal of sanitary materials is although linked with personal behaviour, but is a negative environmental externality. Use of non-biodegradable sanitary napkins has an additional burden of disposal on the environment as it takes many years to degrade and add burden for waste management. The annual load of menstrual hygiene product is very high with about 44,254 cu. cm of waste being generated per female per year. If the problem of disposal remains unaddressed, it will give rise to issues of waste management, poor hygiene, and health problems. Adolescents, especially in economically and environmentally vulnerable settings, become a vulnerable group in terms of awareness, education, knowledge, and experiences, which can result into poor health for themselves as well as for the community and environment. Girls face various constraints in properly managing menstruation due to lack of toilets, lack of menstrual hygiene products and lack of information because the process of menstruation is seen as an unclean phenomenon. Lack of adequate understanding of these issues has motivated this study to assess the knowledge, practices including disposal of menstrual products and health impacts among adolescents during the menstruation.
Objectives:
1. To assess the knowledge and awareness among adolescent girls about menstrual hygiene in a less developed setting such as an urban slum.
2. To understand the practices prevalent among adolescent girls during menstruation in terms of personal hygiene and factors influencing them.
3. To assess the health problems associated with the lack of proper menstrual hygiene practices
Methodology: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted where menstruating girls between the age of 10-19 years were interviewed in a slum area of Mumbai. The analysis of data was done using MS Excel and STATA.
Results: The mean age at menarche was 13.28±1.34 years. More than half of the adolescent girls (57%) of girls were aware of menstruation before menarche. School education was the major source of information for adolescents to know about menstruation. Majority of the girls were found not aware of the physiological process of menstruation. Nearly three-fourths of the girls used sanitary napkins. Poor hygiene practices in terms of not bathing regularly (73.2%) were reported. Dysmenorrhea and vaginal discharge were common health problems faced by girls.
Keywords: Menstrual hygiene, knowledge, practices, RTIs, adolescent girls
