Demystifying Menstrual Health Management to Enhance Academic Performance among Adolescent Primary School Girls in Rural Uganda

Abstract

Efficacious menstrual health management (MHM) is critical to ensure effective physiological and psychological functionality as well as academic performance of school-going adolescent girls. This chapter presents an impact evaluation involving 60 [experimental (n = 30) and control (n = 30)] adolescent girls in primary five class in two distant schools in Tororo District in Eastern Uganda using a randomised controlled trial. A pencil and paper pre-test composed of English language, Mathematics, Integrated Science, and Social Studies was administered to both groups. The experimental group was entirely one school that was then engaged in storying and gamification of menstrual health management for sixty days. Participants in the control group were not provided with these. A pencil and paper post-test was again administered to both groups. Results indicated that the girls in the treatment group (provided with MHM) (t = 8.498, df = 29, p < .05), with (M = 16.67, SD = 10.74) obtained significantly higher scores than those in the control group (not provided with MHM), (t = 4.28, df = 29, p < .05), mean (M = 6.83, SD = 8.74). This implies that the provision of MHM to adolescent girls significantly improved their academic performance. We, therefore, conclude and recommend that provision of MHM in a story and game way to adolescent girls in primary schools, especially in the rural areas, be considered as a central policy issue in order to demystify menstruation and hence improve the academic performance of girls from those areas.