Menstrual Hygiene Management among Senior High School Students in the New Juaben North Municipality

Abstract

Menstruation, which is a physiological process, remains fundamental in the life of adolescents especially those in school with tendencies to impede their social lives, health and human rights including education. Despite menstruation being a natural and inevitable process, adolescent girls continue to face challenges with several misconceptions and myths. These influence the various menstrual hygiene management practices they adopt. Extant literature has looked at how several factors affect these management practices especially among rural dwellers and urban poor with little attention to peri-urban areas that are witnessing fast changes in economic and demographic characteristics. Thus, this study sought to assess the menstrual hygiene management practices among adolescent schoolgirls in peri-urban settings. The study employed a cross-sectional research design using a quantitative approach of data collection to investigate the phenomenon in 2 senior high schools in the New Juaben North Municipality. A total of 557 respondents were randomly sampled for the study. Data was initially analyzed descriptively, and a logistic regression was performed. P<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Overall, 61.22% of students had good knowledge, 21.36% exhibited moderate knowledge and 17.41% showed poor knowledge on menstrual hygiene management. About 57% adopted good menstrual hygiene practices while 43% engaged in poor practices. Controlling for other factors, students who stay with mothers only during vacation, availability of bins for disposal of pads and adequacy of WASH facilities for menstrual hygiene needs were significant predictors of good menstrual hygiene practices. Poor privacy and adequacy of sanitary facilities in schools and the high price of sanitary pads were challenges to ensuring good menstrual hygiene practices. Considering the sensitive nature of menstruation, any small knowledge gap translates to a gap in optimal health and social acceptance which influences education. Stakeholders should provide training as part of the educational curriculum to improve knowledge and provide a conducive environment to foster good practices. Also, the government should develop policies to subsidize the price of sanitary pads to reduce burden, improve access and foster adequate practice.