Practice of menstrual hygiene and associated factors among female Mehalmeda high school students in Amhara regional state, Ethiopia

Introduction: Menstrual hygiene management has not received adequate attention in the reproductive health sectors in developing countries. In Africa the practice of menstrual hygiene management is still poor and the issue is under estimated. Due to poor menstrual hygiene management the adolescent girls are exposed for reproductive tract infection, school absenteeism and increase school dropout rate. Objectives: To assess the practice of menstrual hygiene and associated factors among female Mehalmeda high school students in Amhara regional state, Ethiopia. Methods: Institution based cross sectional study design conducted from April 01 to 30/2013 using multistage sampling technique. Four hundred ninety two study participants were selected and structured pretested questionnaire was used to collect information from the participants. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 16 Crude odds ratio (COR) and Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) was used to identify the association with p value <0.05 as significant. Result: Majority of the participants (90.9%) practiced good menstrual hygiene and had high level of menstrual hygiene knowledge. After bivariate analysis, the significant factors of menstrual hygiene were entered in to the multivariate model. It revealed that good menstrual hygiene was practiced among those participants who had high level of knowledge about menstrual hygiene (OR 5.78: 95% CI, 2.15-15.51), teachers as source of information (OR 7.64: 95% CI, 2.16-27.03) and access for water (OR 6.5: 95% CI, 2.08-20.32) and urban place of residence (OR 2.38: 95% CI, 1.137, 3.05). Conclusion: Majority of the participants had high level of menstrual hygiene knowledge practiced good menstrual hygiene. Different factors affect the practice of menstrual hygiene such as source of information, access of water and knowledge about menstrual hygiene.