Knowledge, attitude and practice of female high school students on menstrual health

Background: One of the most important events in everyone's life is the period of adolescence and maturity. The first factor for recognizing the real maturity in young girls is the first menstruation (monthly period). Although menstrual cycle is an inevitable event for females, most of them have not good information on it. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of young high school girls on menstrual health in khoramabad in 2005. Materials and methods: This research was an analytic descriptive study. 700 students were selected by systematic randomized sampling. Data collection tool was a questionnaire including 2 parts which completed in one step. Statistical inferential methods were used for analyzing the data by SPSS Version 11 software. Findings: Average age was 14.8 years. 52% had irregular menstruation. Menstruation period was 5-7 days in 40.7% of cases. 94.1% had good information on menstrual health. Cases have acquired their information primarily from their mothers. 50% had weak knowledge, and 30.1% had negative attitude and their practice was compatible with their attitude. The prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 15.9%. A great majority of cases had mood and behavioral disorders (fear, anxiety). There was a significant relationship between knowledge, attitude and practice with the resource of information, parental education and the job of the mother. Conclusion: It is necessary to train young girls, their mothers and teachers on menstrual health and the effect of factors such as nutrition, exercise, stress and personal hygiene on it. It is also a necessity to include regular exercise and menstrual health subjects in curriculum of high schools.