Impact of health education intervention on menstruation and its hygiene among urban school-going adolescent girls in Thiruvallur, Tamilnadu.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescent girls require specific and special attention since they are the most vulnerable group not only in terms of their social status but also their health. Poor menstrual hygiene can lead to developing infections and other complications. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of assessing the impact of health education on menstrual hygiene among urban school-going adolescent girls.

METHODOLOGY: A quasi-experimental, pre and post-test study was conducted among adolescent girls aged between 11 to 17 years from two public schools in the urban field practice area of tertiary care medical college in Thiruvallur district of Tamilnadu. A pre-interventional survey was done using a pretested validated questionnaire. Multipronged health education intervention was administered, and its effectiveness was measured after four months using the same tool. Frequencies, percentages, median, and range were used to describe variables. 'Wilcoxon signed-rank test' and the "Mann-Whitney U-" test were used for inferential statistics.

RESULTS: There was a statistically significant ( P = 0.0001) improvement in the knowledge of menstruation, perceived attitude, and practice of good menstrual hygiene from pre to post-test after the intervention. Demographic factors such as age, mother's education, and socio-economic status, and Menstrual characteristics such as age at menarche, regular menstrual flow, absence of dysmenorrhea, and getting menstruation advice before menarche were found to be significantly associated with the post-test median scores.

CONCLUSION: A planned and structured health education program should be addressed to adolescent girls both at schools and community settings for improving menstruation-related knowledge and practices.