A THESIS REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH, COLLEGE OF MEDICINE AND HEATLH SCIENCES, ARBA MINCH UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTTER OF PUBLIC HEALTH IN REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH.

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.