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Age at menarche, menstrual characteristics, and its associated morbidities among secondary school students in Abakaliki, southeast Nigeria

BACKGROUND: Menstruation has a variable pattern. Knowledge of age at menarche and providing accurate information to adolescent girls is necessary to allay anxiety, treat menstrual morbidities, and improve their quality of life. OBJECTIVE: To determine the age at menarche and menstrual characteristic...

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Autores principales: Anikwe, Chidebe C., Mamah, Johnbosco E., Okorochukwu, Bartholomew C., Nnadozie, Ugochukwu U., Obarezi, Chukwuemeka H., Ekwedigwe, Kenneth C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7268279/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32518847
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04018
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author Anikwe, Chidebe C.
Mamah, Johnbosco E.
Okorochukwu, Bartholomew C.
Nnadozie, Ugochukwu U.
Obarezi, Chukwuemeka H.
Ekwedigwe, Kenneth C.
author_facet Anikwe, Chidebe C.
Mamah, Johnbosco E.
Okorochukwu, Bartholomew C.
Nnadozie, Ugochukwu U.
Obarezi, Chukwuemeka H.
Ekwedigwe, Kenneth C.
author_sort Anikwe, Chidebe C.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Menstruation has a variable pattern. Knowledge of age at menarche and providing accurate information to adolescent girls is necessary to allay anxiety, treat menstrual morbidities, and improve their quality of life. OBJECTIVE: To determine the age at menarche and menstrual characteristics of adolescent secondary school girls in Abakaliki. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in seven secondary schools in Abakaliki among 960 female students. A total of 450 girls were randomly selected for the study. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was used in data collection. Four hundred questionnaires were properly filled and used for the final analysis. RESULTS: The age range of the students was between 10 - 21years. The mean age of the respondents was 16.2 ± 1.7years. The average age at menarche was 13 ± 1.0 years. Urban dwellers had menarche 0.2years earlier than rural dwellers. There is an association between menarche and social class (X [2] 372.9 (2), p = 0.001). About 87.75% of the respondents had an average cycle length. Most (88.3%) of the respondents had a menstrual flow duration of 3–5 days. Dysmenorrhoea was present in 82% of respondents and was severe enough to cause absence from school in 56.5% of students. Oligomenorrhea and menorrhagia occurred in 8.5 % and 6.25 % of the student studied. Mothers (80.0%), friends (75.0%) and teachers (74.5%) accounted for the bulk of the information on menstrual health. CONCLUSION: The average age at menarche was 13 ± 1.0 years. Dysmenorrhea is a major cause of morbidity amongst this age group and should be empathically addressed. It is therefore important that the students, their parents, and school managers in the study area be educated on the issues of menstrual problems that can occur in an adolescent.
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spelling pubmed-72682792020-06-08 Age at menarche, menstrual characteristics, and its associated morbidities among secondary school students in Abakaliki, southeast Nigeria Anikwe, Chidebe C. Mamah, Johnbosco E. Okorochukwu, Bartholomew C. Nnadozie, Ugochukwu U. Obarezi, Chukwuemeka H. Ekwedigwe, Kenneth C. Heliyon Article BACKGROUND: Menstruation has a variable pattern. Knowledge of age at menarche and providing accurate information to adolescent girls is necessary to allay anxiety, treat menstrual morbidities, and improve their quality of life. OBJECTIVE: To determine the age at menarche and menstrual characteristics of adolescent secondary school girls in Abakaliki. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in seven secondary schools in Abakaliki among 960 female students. A total of 450 girls were randomly selected for the study. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was used in data collection. Four hundred questionnaires were properly filled and used for the final analysis. RESULTS: The age range of the students was between 10 - 21years. The mean age of the respondents was 16.2 ± 1.7years. The average age at menarche was 13 ± 1.0 years. Urban dwellers had menarche 0.2years earlier than rural dwellers. There is an association between menarche and social class (X [2] 372.9 (2), p = 0.001). About 87.75% of the respondents had an average cycle length. Most (88.3%) of the respondents had a menstrual flow duration of 3–5 days. Dysmenorrhoea was present in 82% of respondents and was severe enough to cause absence from school in 56.5% of students. Oligomenorrhea and menorrhagia occurred in 8.5 % and 6.25 % of the student studied. Mothers (80.0%), friends (75.0%) and teachers (74.5%) accounted for the bulk of the information on menstrual health. CONCLUSION: The average age at menarche was 13 ± 1.0 years. Dysmenorrhea is a major cause of morbidity amongst this age group and should be empathically addressed. It is therefore important that the students, their parents, and school managers in the study area be educated on the issues of menstrual problems that can occur in an adolescent. Elsevier 2020-05-26 /pmc/articles/PMC7268279/ /pubmed/32518847 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04018 Text en © 2020 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Anikwe, Chidebe C.
Mamah, Johnbosco E.
Okorochukwu, Bartholomew C.
Nnadozie, Ugochukwu U.
Obarezi, Chukwuemeka H.
Ekwedigwe, Kenneth C.
Age at menarche, menstrual characteristics, and its associated morbidities among secondary school students in Abakaliki, southeast Nigeria
title Age at menarche, menstrual characteristics, and its associated morbidities among secondary school students in Abakaliki, southeast Nigeria
title_full Age at menarche, menstrual characteristics, and its associated morbidities among secondary school students in Abakaliki, southeast Nigeria
title_fullStr Age at menarche, menstrual characteristics, and its associated morbidities among secondary school students in Abakaliki, southeast Nigeria
title_full_unstemmed Age at menarche, menstrual characteristics, and its associated morbidities among secondary school students in Abakaliki, southeast Nigeria
title_short Age at menarche, menstrual characteristics, and its associated morbidities among secondary school students in Abakaliki, southeast Nigeria
title_sort age at menarche, menstrual characteristics, and its associated morbidities among secondary school students in abakaliki, southeast nigeria
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7268279/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32518847
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04018
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