Unsafe menstrual hygiene management practices and its associated factors among secondary school girls in Bukoba Municipality, Tanzania

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Menstrual hygiene is a significant issues that every girl and woman has to deal with. Unfortunately, health talks surrounding menstrual hygiene are minimal owing to the fact that the topic of menstruation is not discussed at especially in developing countries. Consequently young girls end up receiving minimal menstrual information from parents and school teachers because menstruation is perceived as taboo by many communities and as results they fail to maintain safe menstrual hygiene practices. Limited studies have been conducted to address this issue in Tanzania. Objective: This study aimed to assess unsafe menstrual hygiene practices and its associated factors among secondary school girls in Bukoba Municipality. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in which 766 adolescent school girls were interviewed. Data were collected using a pre tested and adapted structured questionnaire. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 23.0. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize the obtained data. Attributes of menstrual hygiene practices and knowledge levels were presented in percentages. Chi square tests was used for testing association of independent variables (age, religion, time taken from menarche, knowledge on menstruation, source of water supply, standard form of education and source of menstrual information) and outcome variable (unsafe menstrual hygiene practices). Binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine determinants for unsafe menstrual hygiene practices. P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The prevalence of unsafe menstrual hygiene practices in this study was found to be 50.7%. The most reported used menstrual absorbent was purchased sanitary pads (70%) More than half (55.4%) reported to change the menstrual absorbent three times a day or more. Burning was the most reported (32.8%) as the menstrual absorbent disposal mechanism. Almost half (44.5%) reported to clean the genitalia once a day. Majority of girls (80.9%) were knowledgeable on menstruation. The determinants of unsafe menstrual hygiene practices were younger age AOR=1.7(95 CI: 1.1-2.7), Muslim AOR=1.5 (95 CI: 1.1-2.1), shorter time from menarche AOR=1.8 (95 CI: 1.2-2.6), poor knowledge on menstruation AOR=2.6 (95 CI: 2.1-3.3), household stand pipe as source of water AOR=0.2 (95 CI: 0.3-0.7) and source of menstrual information from relative AOR=0.5 (95 CI: 0.3-0.7). Conclusion: Higher prevalence of unsafe menstrual hygiene practices and higher knowledge on menstruation was observed among study participants. Higher odds of unsafe menstrual hygiene practices were observed to be related to younger age, Muslim, shorter time from menarche and low knowledge on menstruation. Lower odds of such practices were observed in individuals who reported to use house water stand pipe as water supply and those who reported relatives to be the source of menstrual information. Awareness regarding the need for information about good menstrual practices is very important. Key words: Safe Menstrual hygiene practices, Menstrual information, menstrual absorbent materials