Publication:

Menstruation physiology knowledge and hygiene practices among adolescent girls from rural and urban backgrounds: a comparative study

Background Proper menstrual hygiene practices are needed for optimum health and dignity of women. One such practice is use of menstrual cup which has not gained widespread acceptance due to lack of awareness and inadequate promotion. A mixed method study conducted to assess the prevalence, practice and effectiveness of technology assisted intervention on knowledge and attitude of menstrual cup usage among working women at selected institution, Salem.

Methods With formal consent, the prevalence and practice of menstrual cup usage was assessed from working women along with the pre and post-test level of knowledge and attitude.

Results Strong positive approach was found among the samples who felt comfortable and happy, and even recommended to others. Among 120 working women, only 4 (3.3%) of them were using menstrual cup. Highest percentage of them had moderately adequate knowledge (60.50%) and neutral attitude (15.7%) in pretest with the mean score of 9.13±2.93 and 60.4±9.6 respectively. Whereas, highest percentage of them had adequate knowledge (81.56%) and positive attitude (52.6%) in post-test with the mean score of 14.13±3.22 and 70.47±10.7 respectively which is highly significant at p≤0.001 level. Also, high positive correlation (r=0.89) was found between knowledge and attitude. Significant association was found between selected variables.

Conclusions The study concluded that though many of the women have heard of menstrual cup, the usage is lesser due to lack of awareness about the usage, its benefits and fear of using. Hence measures need to be taken to promote awareness.