A study on knowledge and practices regarding menstrual hygiene among rural and urban adolescent girls in Udupi Taluk, Manipal, India

Background Adolescent girls often lack knowledge regarding reproductive health including menstruation hygiene which can be due to socio-cultural barriers in which they grow up. Objectives: To explore the knowledge, practices and sources of information regarding menstruation and hygiene among adolescent girls in Udupi taluk, India. Methods: An epidemiologic study was undertaken using cross-sectional study method among 550 schoolgoing adolescent girls aged13-16 years. A total of 270 were from urban and 280 from the rural area. Stratified cluster sampling was adopted to select the schools and simple random sampling technique to select the participants. Data was collected using a pre-tested questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 15. Results Around 34% participants were aware about menstruation prior to menarche, and mothers were the main source of information among both groups. Overall, 70.4% of adolescent girls were using sanitary napkins as menstrual absorbent, while 25.6% were using both cloth and sanitary napkins. Almost half of the rural participants dried the absorbent inside their homes. Conclusions: There is a need to equip the adolescent girls with knowledge regarding safe, hygienic practices to enable them to lead a healthy reproductive life.