Menstrual knowledge, perception and hygiene practices of girls in secondary schools at Ubungo Municipal, Dar Es Salaam Tanzania

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Menstrual knowledge, perception and hygiene practices among secondary school girls is a sensitive subject as it is regarded to be something confidential, unclean or shameful within the society. There is a need to empower girls with required knowledge that will build confidence during menstruation when they are at schools to ensure safe and healthy menstruation practices. Main objective: To assess menstrual knowledge, perception and hygiene practices of adolescent girls in secondary schools. Methods: This was a descriptive study which involved adolescent girls with a sample size of 403 of adolescent girls in Secondary Schools. Questionnaires were used to collect information on level of menstrual knowledge, perception and hygiene practices of adolescent girls in secondary schools. Cross tabulation and frequency tables were used to determine the level of menstrual knowledge, perception and menstrual hygiene practices of adolescent girls in secondary schools. Bivariate analysis was used to establish associations between different variables and Chi-square was used to test significance of association. Results: Majority (82.9%) of the adolescent girls had high knowledge on menstruation while 53.8% had positive perception and 85.1% had good menstrual hygiene practices. Despite the high level of menstruation knowledge, restrictions from the community were found to affect hygiene practices of menstruation and perception. However, menstrual knowledge and menstrual perception are statistically significant associate with menstrual hygiene practices. Conclusions and Recommendation: Restriction from the community that affect hygiene practices and perception during menstruation despite relatively good knowledge of menstruation. Efforts have to be put into the community by educating and breaking the silence at the community on meaning of menstruation, importance of good hygienic practice.