Abstract:
Background: Globally, approximately 52% of the female population or 26% of the total
population is of reproductive age. Most of these women and girls menstruate each month for
between two and seven days. Girls typically start to menstruate during puberty or adolescence,
typically between the ages of 10 and 19.In adolescents who experienced menstruation for the
first time, menstrual hygiene management is constrained by practical, social, economic and
cultural factors such as the expense of commercial sanitary pads, lack of water and latrine
facilities, lack of private rooms for changing sanitary pads, and limited education about the facts
of menstrual hygiene.
Objectives: To assess menstrual hygiene management practice and associated factors among
grade 7 and 8 girl students in Chencha woreda, Southern Ethiopia, 2017.
Methods: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted on 579 grade 7 and 8 girl
students in chencha woreda from March 27 to April 7 2017. Multi stage sampling technique was
used. The data was entered into Epi Info 3.5.3 and analyzed by SPSS version 16. Bivariate and
multi variable analysis was used to examine association between dependent and independent
variables. P-value ≤0.05was considered as statistically significant.
Result :Out of 579 participants 317 (54.7%) practiced poor menstrual hygiene and it was poor
among students with poor knowledge (AOR 4.521:95% CI, 2.696, 7.579) than students with
good knowledge ,students whose mothers were uneducated (AOR 2.177:95% CI, 1.405, 3.375)
than students whose mothers were educated, students who don’t discuss freely about menstrual
issues with parents (AOR.2.963:95% CI, 1.849, 4.747),than students who discuss, students who
know sanitary pads in market (AOR 2.125:95% CI, 1.196, 3.775) than who don’t know.
Conclusion and Recommendation: Majority of the participants had poor menstrual hygiene
management practice. Level of knowledge, maternal education, discussion with parents about
menstrual issues and hearing about sanitary pads before were factors associated with menstrual
hygiene management practice in current study. Woreda education and Health offices should play
a great role in improving knowledge for mothers to improve MHM practice in girls and
researchers should conduct large scale researches.
