Menstrual hygiene management practice among adolescent girls: a cross sectional study in Nepal

Background: Good menstrual hygiene is fundamental to health, hygiene and well-being of women and girls. As menstruation itself considered as taboo in Nepalese society, it has direct impacts on the health of the women and adolescent. The objective of the study is to assess the knowledge and practices regarding menstrual hygiene management among adolescent girls.Methods: A cross- sectional study design was conducted among 398 samples. Simple random sampling was done to select the resource center schools and probability proportionate sampling (PPS) technique used to get sample size. Structured interview schedule is used to collect data and analysed from SPSS software after validation.Results: Knowledge on menstrual hygiene management was good in urban adolescent girls (93.69%) as compared to rural (6.31%). Similarly, level of practice was good regarding menstrual hygiene management was good in urban adolescent girls (91.29%) as compared to rural (8.71%). Place of the residence and knowledge level of the adolescent girls was highly significant (p<0.001).Conclusions: The findings showed that rural adolescent girls had poor knowledge, various misconceptions and inadequate practices regarding menstrual hygiene management.

Nutritional Status and Nutrition-Related knowledge Among Urban Adolescent Girls in Bangladesh

Background Nutritional status of adolescent girls is very crucial for their health and has a great impact on the quality of the next generation. The present study aimed to investigate the nutritional status and nutrition-related knowledge among urban adolescent girls in Bangladesh. Methods A cross-sectional study involving a total 500 of adolescent girls (aged 10-19) from four schools and colleges in Dhaka city. Socio-demographic, anthropometric and nutrition-related information was collected by semi-structured questionnaires. In addition, 24 hours food recall and food frequency questionnaire was used to assess the dietary intake. Results The ages of the early adolescent and late adolescent girls yrs (Mean ± SD) were 12±1 and 17±1 respectively. The mean (±SD) BMI of the early adolescent and late adolescent was 21.12±0.32 and 22.10±3.89 correspondingly. Among the early adolescent girls, the nutritional knowledge score was about 62% (moderate), 87% had a positive attitude and 72% had good practices in their daily lives. Whereas among the late adolescent girls, the nutritional knowledge score was about 57% (moderate), 90% showed a positive attitude and 61% had good practices. Among the subject, the average calorie intake was 1491 kcal, which was 24% lower than RDA. The Carbohydrate intake was lower than the RDA but the protein and fat intake was higher than the RDA. Conclusions The dietary intake of adolescent girls was found inadequate. Nutrition education and strong motivation can create positive changes in dietary intake. To understand the real phenomena of dietary intake of adolescent girls, further study is necessary to conduct with a large sample size.

Freedom of Movement and Adolescent Sexual Violence in India

This study assesses associations between freedom of movement and sexual violence, both in marriage and outside of marriage, among a representative sample of adolescents in India. We analyzed data from girls aged 15 to 19 years ( n = 9,593) taken from India’s nationally representative National Family Health Survey 2015–2016. We defined freedom of movement using three items on whether girls could go unaccompanied to specified locations; we summated responses and categorized them as restricted, or unrestricted. We used multivariable regression to assess associations between restricted movement and nonmarital violence, and with marital sexual violence among ever-married girls. Results show that only 2% of girls reported nonmarital sexual violence, among married and unmarried girls; 6% of married girls reported marital sexual violence. Most girls (78%) reported some restriction in movement. Restricted movement was negatively associated with nonmarital sexual violence (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.31, 0.87], p = .01) but positively associated with marital sexual violence (AOR = 3.87, 95% CI = [1.82, 8.25], p < .001). Further analyses highlight that the observed association with nonmarital sexual violence was specific to urban and not rural girls. These findings reveal that approximately one in 30 adolescent girls in India has been a victim of sexual violence. Restricted movement is associated with lower risk for nonmarital sexual violence for urban adolescent girls, possibly due to lower exposure opportunity. Married girls with restricted movement have higher odds of marital sexual violence, possibly because these are both forms of control used by abusive husbands. Freedom of movement is a human right that should not place girls at greater risk for nonmarital violence or be used as a means of control by abusive spouses. Social change is needed to secure girls’ safety in India.

Knowledge regarding menstruation among school-going adolescents of urban Bareilly

Background: Adolescence in girls has been recognized as a special period. Adolescents are a large and growing segment of the world’s population. Adolescence in girls is a turbulent period of development, which includes stressful events like menarche. Some of the special problems of adolescents are nutritional problems, menstrual disorders, leucorrhoea, and psychological problems. Though menstruation is a natural process, it is linked with several misconceptions and practices in India due to different rituals in the communities, which sometimes result in adverse health outcomes. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge about menstrual hygiene among urban adolescent girls in Bareilly.Methods: The study was conducted in the urban area of Bareilly taking a sample size of 450 girls with multistage sampling technique.Results: About 40% of participants had complete knowledge regarding menstruation, 64.9% of participants regarded menstruation as a curse of God, and 35.6% of the participants perceived urethra as the main source organ for blood during menstruation.Conclusions: This research addressed the issues in managing their menstruation and maintaining a good standard of menstrual hygiene in adolescent girls.

A Comparative Study of women empowerment awareness level of Adolescent Girls in rural and urban H.S. Schools of Assam

The present study is undertake to find out the secondary level urban and rural adolescent girls awareness level on women empowerment. The sample of the study consist of 195 nos of both urban and rural area higher secondary (10+2) level adolescent girl student of kamrup district of Assam. the main objective of the study is to compare the awareness level of the urban and rural located adolescent girl students. The findings of the study reveals that rural adolescent girls are less empowered than urban adolescent girls and there is a significant difference between rural and urban adolescent girls' awareness level.