Knowledge of Menstrual Hygiene among Adolescent Chepang School Girls in Makwanpur District Nepal

Abstract

Background: Menstruation is a periodic discharge of blood, mucus lining of uterus through vagina whichoccurs monthly from menarche till menopause for reproductive age women. Menstrual hygiene is animportant part of basic hygiene, sanitation and reproductive health. It is a vital aspect for health educationfor adolescent girls to prevent the risk of reproductive tract infections.Objective: To assess the effectiveness of educational intervention on knowledge of menstrual hygieneamong adolescent chepang school girls.Methodology: Evaluative research approach with pre -experimental (one group pretest- posttest) researchdesign was used for the study. The study population was adolescent Chepang girls of chepang school ofMakwanpur district. Sample size of the study was 52. Non probability purposive sampling technique wasused to select the schools of Chepang girls. For data collection firstly pretest knowledge was assessed usingself-developed structured questionnaire and then structured teaching program was administered. After 7days of teaching program, post test was conducted to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching program.Semi-structured Self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was analyzed via SPSSsoftware version 16.Result: During pretest 13.5% of girls had high knowledge on menstrual hygiene; 78.8% girls had mediumknowledge and 7.7% had poor knowledge, whereas in posttest 96.2% had high knowledge and 3.8% of girlshad medium knowledge. Mean score in pretest is 15.2308, whereas in posttest mean score is 23.2692.Conclusion: Educational intervention on knowledge on menstrual hygiene was effective. So informationand education programme should be planned in a regular basis in backward community targeting to schoolgirls to improve knowledge on menstrual hygiene.