Assessment Of Menstrual Hygiene Practices And Associated Factors Among Ambo Town Public Secondary School Girls West Shoa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2019

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.