A comparative study of perception and practices regarding menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls in urban and rural areas of Jodhpur district, Rajasthan.

Abstract

There are vast disparities of information gap between urban and rural adolescent girls in India, which do have an impact on the practices during menstruation. To assess and compare the knowledge, perceptions, and practices of adolescent girls regarding menstrual hygiene in rural and urban areas of Jodhpur. It was a cross-sectional study, which was conducted on school going adolescent girls in urban and rural schools of Jodhpur. The sample size for the study was 450, which was divided into rural and urban adolescent girls. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS v. 16. Inferences were drawn using Chi-square test and t test. The mean age of menarche was 13.41 ± 1.07 years. A significantly more number of girls from an urban area (56.2%) were using sanitary napkins during menstruation. Only around one-fourth of the girls in study area had ever been counseled for menstrual hygiene. Awareness about adolescent health clinic was significantly more among urban girls. Significant differences were observed among urban and rural adolescent girls in terms of knowledge, perception, and practices related to menstrual hygiene.