KNOWLEDGE ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES OF TRIBAL ADOLESCENT GIRLS RELATED TO MENSTRUATION IN SOUTHERN RAJASTHAN

Abstract

Young girls up to 18 years of age comprise a quarter of Indian female population. A vast majority of adolescent girls in India are affected by reproductive health issues and menstrual problems are one of them. These problems arise mostly due to false beliefs & poor awareness regarding menstrual cycle. The objective of the study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practices towards menstrual cycle and its problems among school girls.
Method: A cross sectional study among 359menstruating girls in 3 tribal hostels of Southern Rajasthan was carried out by interviewing them with predesigned & pretested questionnaire. Data were collected through face-to-face interactions in Hindi or local dialect, ensuring privacy and comfort. Responses were manually coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics in Microsoft Excel.
Result: The study revealed 55.3% adolescent girls had not heard about menstruation before attaining menarche. Mother was the main source of information for majority of them (40.1%). Most of them attained menarche at the age of 12 - 14 years, majority being at 13 yrs (46.5%). Duration of the menstrual cycle was 21- 35 days for most of them. Most of the adolescent tribal girls used torn clothes (57.6%) as the main absorbent material. Most of the girls disposed the used material in the household garbage (31.7%).
Conclusion: There is a need for adolescent girls to have accurate and adequate information about menstruation appropriate sanitary and hygienic management.