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Perceptions and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health in adolescent girls in an urban population - A cross sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Menarche is an important biological milestone in a woman’s life as it marks the onset of the reproductive phase of her life. It is, often considered an impure phenomenon in Indian society owing to cultural taboos and insufficient and incorrect information and causes unnecessary restric...

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Autores principales: Vinod, Anuna, Kaimal, Resmi S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10259553/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37312783
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1752_22
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author Vinod, Anuna
Kaimal, Resmi S.
author_facet Vinod, Anuna
Kaimal, Resmi S.
author_sort Vinod, Anuna
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Menarche is an important biological milestone in a woman’s life as it marks the onset of the reproductive phase of her life. It is, often considered an impure phenomenon in Indian society owing to cultural taboos and insufficient and incorrect information and causes unnecessary restrictions in the day-to-day normal activities of menstruating girls. AIM: To assess the perception and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health among school-going adolescent girls in the urban population in Kochi, Kerala. OBJECTIVES: To elicit the practices regarding menstruation and reproductive health among the school-going, adolescent girls. i. To elicit the beliefs, perceptions, and sources of information regarding menstruation and reproductive health among the school going, adolescent girls. ii. To find out the relation between perceptions/practices and other factors. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 adolescent girls of a secondary school situated in Ernakulam, Kerala, with the help of a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire. Data were analyzed statistically by simple proportions. RESULT: 89% of the girls were aware of menstruation before menarche. A major source of information was found to be mothers. More than 70% used sanitary pads and 99% of girls knew menses as a natural phenomenon. 80% of girls with good perception had no menses-related anxiety. 54% haven’t even heard of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome. 40% have inhibition talking about menses to their father or brother. Among girls with good practice, 87% had a good perception. CONCLUSIONS: Before bringing any change in menstrual practices, Family physicians can play a role in educating the girls about the significance of menstruation and the development of secondary sexual characteristics, the selection of a sanitary menstrual absorbent, and its proper disposal. Trained personnel, school teachers, and knowledgeable parents can play a very important role in imparting menstrual health-related information to adolescent girls.
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spelling pubmed-102595532023-06-13 Perceptions and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health in adolescent girls in an urban population - A cross sectional study Vinod, Anuna Kaimal, Resmi S. J Family Med Prim Care Original Article INTRODUCTION: Menarche is an important biological milestone in a woman’s life as it marks the onset of the reproductive phase of her life. It is, often considered an impure phenomenon in Indian society owing to cultural taboos and insufficient and incorrect information and causes unnecessary restrictions in the day-to-day normal activities of menstruating girls. AIM: To assess the perception and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health among school-going adolescent girls in the urban population in Kochi, Kerala. OBJECTIVES: To elicit the practices regarding menstruation and reproductive health among the school-going, adolescent girls. i. To elicit the beliefs, perceptions, and sources of information regarding menstruation and reproductive health among the school going, adolescent girls. ii. To find out the relation between perceptions/practices and other factors. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 adolescent girls of a secondary school situated in Ernakulam, Kerala, with the help of a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire. Data were analyzed statistically by simple proportions. RESULT: 89% of the girls were aware of menstruation before menarche. A major source of information was found to be mothers. More than 70% used sanitary pads and 99% of girls knew menses as a natural phenomenon. 80% of girls with good perception had no menses-related anxiety. 54% haven’t even heard of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome. 40% have inhibition talking about menses to their father or brother. Among girls with good practice, 87% had a good perception. CONCLUSIONS: Before bringing any change in menstrual practices, Family physicians can play a role in educating the girls about the significance of menstruation and the development of secondary sexual characteristics, the selection of a sanitary menstrual absorbent, and its proper disposal. Trained personnel, school teachers, and knowledgeable parents can play a very important role in imparting menstrual health-related information to adolescent girls. Wolters Kluwer - Medknow 2023-04 2023-04-17 /pmc/articles/PMC10259553/ /pubmed/37312783 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1752_22 Text en Copyright: © 2023 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
spellingShingle Original Article
Vinod, Anuna
Kaimal, Resmi S.
Perceptions and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health in adolescent girls in an urban population - A cross sectional study
title Perceptions and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health in adolescent girls in an urban population - A cross sectional study
title_full Perceptions and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health in adolescent girls in an urban population - A cross sectional study
title_fullStr Perceptions and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health in adolescent girls in an urban population - A cross sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Perceptions and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health in adolescent girls in an urban population - A cross sectional study
title_short Perceptions and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health in adolescent girls in an urban population - A cross sectional study
title_sort perceptions and practices related to menstruation and reproductive health in adolescent girls in an urban population - a cross sectional study
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10259553/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37312783
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1752_22
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