A comparative study of perception and practices regarding menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls in urban and rural areas of Jodhpur district, Rajasthan

CONTEXT: There are vast disparities of information gap between urban and rural adolescent girls in India, which do have an impact on the practices during menstruation. AIM: To assess and compare the knowledge, perceptions, and practices of adolescent girls regarding menstrual hygiene in rural and urban areas of Jodhpur. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: It was a cross-sectional study, which was conducted on school going adolescent girls in urban and rural schools of Jodhpur. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample size for the study was 450, which was divided into rural and urban adolescent girls. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data were analyzed using SPSS v. 16. Inferences were drawn using Chi-square test and t test. RESULTS: The mean age of menarche was 13.41 ± 1.07 years. A significantly more number of girls from an urban area (56.2%) were using sanitary napkins during menstruation. Only around one-fourth of the girls in study area had ever been counseled for menstrual hygiene. Awareness about adolescent health clinic was significantly more among urban girls. CONCLUSION: Significant differences were observed among urban and rural adolescent girls in terms of knowledge, perception, and practices related to menstrual hygiene.