Knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene among the girls in Janapriya Multiple Campus, Pokhara

Abstract

This study is carried out to identify the knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene among girl students studying in Janapriya Multiple Campus (JMC). A descriptive and analytical study design is used to assess the knowledge and practice of girl students of JMC. All the female students were the population and the sample size was 111 from 10 plus two level and bachelor level randomly. The quantitative data collected was analysed using SPSS for Windows version 16.0. Bi-variable analysis was carried out to identify factors related to the practice of menstruation and menstrual hygiene. There is no significant association between caste and use of absorbent (chi-square = 1.84 with a degree of freedom = 1 and p > 0.05.). The majority had knowledge about the use of sanitary pads; however, a small proportion (15%) of them used old cloths and reused those clothes after washing again. One or more cultural taboos and restrictions were practiced related to menstruation. More than half of the respondents had the problem of performing religious rites, followed by those having problem of entry into the kitchen and were not allowed to use the same bed. However, a few (5.4%) had no problems at their homes. It was concluded that traditional taboos were still seen in the communities from where the students came. So, reproductive health related awareness programme should be launched on those communities.