Abstract:
Background: Menstrual hygiene practice is an issue that insufficiently recognized and has not received
adequate attention, among school girls. Majority of school girls in developing countries are not friendly to
manage their menstrual hygiene due to lack of sanitary supplies, hygiene facilities and inadequate
awareness which directly correlated with poor menstrual hygiene practice. Study on menstrual hygiene
practice is limited to explore this correlated factors in the study area, so that this study is aimed to assess
the prevalence of these factors in Public secondary schools of Ambo town,2019.
Objectives: the aim of this study was to assess menstrual hygiene practice and associated factors among
public secondary school girls in Ambo town, 20- 30, April, 2019.
Methods: School-based mixed-method cross-sectional study was conducted among 623 Ambo town public
secondary school girls from 20- 30, April, 2019. A multi-stage stratified sampling was used for quantitative
and purposive sampling was used for the qualitative study. Quantitative data were cleaned, coded and
entered in to Epi-Data Software Version 3.1 and exported to SPSS Ver. 21. Variables with p values < 0.25
in bivariate logistic regression analyses were entered into a multiple logistic regression model and
multivariate binary logistic regression using AOR with their 95% CI were estimated to assess the level of
significance, and Variables with P-value < 0.05 were considered in the final model statistically significant.
Qualitative data were collected from key informants by interview Questionnaires and FGDs were
interviewed by structured open ended questions to triangulate the finding with quantitative results. The
qualitative method responses were categorized and then organized by content with thematic analysis.
Result: This study had 100% response rate. 46.2% of the respondents had good menstrual hygiene practice.
According to this study, being age 18 years and above [AOR=1.91, 95% CI (1.02-3.58)], Mothers’
educational status of degree and above [AOR=2.09, 95% CI (1.68-6.39)],female student freely discuss
about menstruation issues [AOR=1.55, 95% CI (1.02-2.35)],School have water supply [AOR=2.22, 95% CI
(1.92-5.35)], females’ toilets having door and lockable inside at school [AOR=6.27, 95% CI (2.39-16.46)],
females ‘students who had good knowledge [AOR=1.55, 95% CI (1.03-2.33)] and family monthly average
income from 2501 to 5000 birr [AOR=9.64, 95% CI (5.42-17.14)] were the variables that showed significant
association with good menstrual hygiene practice. .
Conclusion and Recommendation: This study identified that the prevalence of good menstrual Hygiene
practice among Ambo town public secondary girl students is below the average. To promote good
menstrual hygiene practice, concerned body should work on school WASH facilities, Menstrual hygiene
supplies and awareness creation interventions.
