Impact of pharmacist mediated educational program on knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls

Abstract

In India, awareness about menstruation before menarche was low, and it is viewed as unclean or dirty in society. In adolescent girls who attained menstruation for the first time, menstrual hygiene management is constrained by social, practical and economic factors such as the expense of sanitary pads, lack of water facilities, lack of private rooms for changing sanitary pads, and limited education about the facts of menstrual hygiene. The practice of good menstrual hygiene reduces the incidence of reproductive tract infections. The aim of the present study was to assess the impact of pharmacist mediated educational program on menstrual hygiene practice. An interventional study was carried out to assess the impact of menstrual hygiene practice on knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls in backward areas of Andhra Pradesh, India. A self-administered questionnaire comprises socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge related to menstruation and menstrual hygiene practice was used to collect data. The collected data was analyzed to assess the knowledge related to the menstrual hygiene practice, school attendance during the menstrual period at baseline and after providing education on menstrual hygiene. The present study reveals that 52.52% of the participants had good knowledge about menstrual hygiene. Pharmacist mediated educational program showed great improvement on the practice of menstrual hygiene such as the use of sanitary pads was improved from 40.42% to 93.38%. After educational program school dropouts was greatly declined from 55.32% to 7.33%. Pharmacist mediated program had a positive impact on menstrual hygiene practice, Government of India need to conduct more educational programs on menstrual hygiene management at a community level.