scholarly journals Balanced diet related knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) among adolescent school girls in Noakhali district, Bangladesh: a cross sectional study

Author(s):  
Susmita Ghosh ◽  
Md Ruhul Kabir ◽  
Mohammad Rahanur Alam ◽  
Akibul Islam Chowdhury ◽  
Md Abdullah Al Mamun

AbstractObjectivesAdolescence, a crucial period for growth velocity including sexual maturation, is an important period of life and young adolescent girls need to have proper knowledge, positive attitudes and practice of balanced diet to achieve optimum growth and development. Considering its importance this study attempts to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of balanced diets among adolescent schoolgirls in Noakhali district, Bangladesh.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in three secondary schools in Noakhali district, Bangladesh. A multistage sampling techniques was used to select schools and study participants. A total of 485 adolescent school girls participated and a pre-designed, validated and structured questionnaire was used for data collection. In addition to descriptive statistics, chi-square test and logistic regression were employed for analysis.ResultsThe results from the study revealed that more than half of the students did not have good knowledge about a balanced diet, 42.8% had a positive attitude, whereas the practice of consuming a balanced diet was rather low (only 4.5%). Students studying in government schools had better knowledge and attitudes than non-government school students. Moreover, 41.1% of students were underweight; more than 60% of respondent’s mothers did not have an education higher than secondary school and were mostly unemployed housewives. Parent’s education, mother’s occupation, and types of school have a strong association with KAP; however, father’s education and occupation showed an association of varying degrees. Being knowledgeable was related to positive attitudes, and students with good knowledge had (OR: 1.828; 95% CI: 1.270–2.631) more likely to have positive attitudes towards a balanced diet.ConclusionsThus, proper knowledge about a balanced diet should be introduced with basic nutritional knowledge to all levels of public education. Interventions and programs can be designed to improve knowledge, attitude, and more specifically the practice at the household level so that adolescent girls can have a proper diet during their sexual maturation phase.

Author(s):  
Sasmita Pradhan ◽  
Krishna Kar ◽  
Barada Prasanna Samal ◽  
Jagannath Pradhan

Background: In the life of a female, menarche denotes the beginning of her reproductive capacity. Menstrual hygiene is an issue that every girl has to deal with in her life, but there is lack of awareness on the process of menstruation, the physical and psychological changes associated with puberty and proper requirement for managing menstruation.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2016 to December 2016 in the urban field practice area of SCB Medical College. One government high school and one private high school were selected purposively. A purposeful convenience sampling was done to select the girls who were studying in 8th, 9th and 10th standard. Data collected from 165 adolescent school girls using a predesigned, pretested and structured questionnaire. The objective of the present study is to assess the knowledge and practices regarding menstrual hygiene among school going adolescent girls and to know about the restrictions imposed upon them during menstruation.Results: Most of the adolescent girls (61.82%) had attained menarche between 13-15 years of age. 59.39% girls were aware about menstruation before menarche. The source of information about menstruation was the mother or elder sister in most of the girls (81.21 %), followed by teachers/friends in case of 18.79 % girls. 84.85% of the girls used only sanitary pad, 4.24% used only cloth and the rest 10.91% used both sanitary pad and cloth during menstruation.Conclusions: Maintenance of menstrual hygiene was better in private school girls as compared to government school girls. Health education sessions about menstrual hygiene should be conducted in the schools for spreading awareness regarding menstruation and menstrual hygiene.


Author(s):  
Afzal Hakim ◽  
Rizwana Shaheen ◽  
Manisha . ◽  
Himani Tak

Background: Young girls up to 20 years of age comprise a quarter of Indian female population. A vast majority of adolescent girls in India are affected by reproductive health issues and menstrual problems are one of them. These problems arise mostly due to false beliefs & poor awareness regarding menstrual cycle. The objective of the study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practices towards menstrual cycle and its problems among school girls. Methods: A cross sectional study among 250 girls (age 13-19 years) each from government and non-government schools of Jodhpur City was carried out by interviewing them with predesigned & pretested questionnaire. Results: Most of the girls of non-government schools considered menarche as a different experience of life (34.8%) and unhygienic (27.6%) while 41.6% of government school girls were scared due to menarche and 30% considered it as unhygienic. 59.6% of non-government school girls knew about menstrual cycle before menarche while 48.8% of government school girls had such knowledge. Mother was the commonest channel of information in both study groups. 12-14 years was the most common age groups in which menarche occurred in both study groups. About 2/3 of non-government school girls were using sanitary pads while only ¼ of government school girls had such practice. High cost was the major reason for not using sanitary pads in Govt. school girls. Pain Abdomen was the commonest complaint faced during menstrual cycle followed by backache. About 4/5th of non-government school girls and about 2/3rd of government school girls attended school during menstrual cycle. All subjects faced some kind of domestic restriction due to disbelief in relation to menstrual cycle. Irritability was reported as most common psychological problem during menstrual cycleConclusions: There is a need for adolescent girls to have accurate and adequate information about menstruation appropriate sanitary and hygienic management. 


Author(s):  
Puja Dudeja ◽  
Apoorva Sindhu ◽  
Pooja Shankar ◽  
Tukaram Gadekar

Abstract Introduction: Reproductive health of adolescent girls is crucial as it determines the health of future generations. School girls when experiencing menarche find themselves in a setting without water, toilets or a supportive female teacher to explain the changes happening in their body. An important concern for adolescent girls is to have adequate, correct knowledge along with facilities and the cultural environment to manage menstruation hygienically and with dignity. Hence, the present study was done to assess knowledge and practices about menstruation in adolescent school girls of an urban slum. Methodology: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among girls of a Government School located in an urban slum of western Maharashtra. A total of 250 girls participated. Data collection was through a pilot-tested questionnaire. The data thus collected were entered into Microsoft Excel and analyzed using the SPSS 20 software. All girls were educated about menstrual hygiene after the study. Results: The mean age of the students was 14.9±1.75 years. The mean age at menarche was 11.97 (95% CI: 11.94–11.99). It was observed that only half (56.4%) had acquired prior knowledge about attaining menarche. Out of these in a large proportion, the knowledge was imparted to them by their mothers (60.7%), followed by friends (31.8%). There was no significant association between educational status of mother and awareness in respondent about menstruation. Regarding the organ of menstrual blood flow, half (50.7%) knew the correct answer (i.e. uterus); whereas the rest believed that it was stomach/kidney, etc. Most of the school girls (90.5%) used sanitary pads. Almost 90% of the young women faced physical complaints or health problems during menstruation. Most of the participants had some kind of restrictions on them during the menstruation and most of these were religious restrictions (69.7%) followed by physical (41.2%) and social restrictions (22.3%). All of them were unsatisfied with the toilets and hand washing facilities available inside the school premises. Conclusion: Correct knowledge in adolescent young girls regarding menstruation is lacking. Lack of awareness is a roadblock in adopting safe and hygienic menstrual practices. It also hinders them from overcoming traditional beliefs, misconceptions and restrictions regarding menstruation. This will empower them as they transition into womanhood.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azmera Tamrat ◽  
Yigizie Yeshaw ◽  
Abel Fekadu

Abstract Introduction: Stunting in adolescent have an effect on physical growth, intellectual capacity, educational achievement, work capacity and more importantly it maintains an intergenerational malnutrition burden. Stunting has been considered as a problem of children’s at early age and adolescent girls of tomorrow mothers have been neglected and studies conducted on this area are very scarce. Methods: we conducted a school based cross-sectional study to assess the prevalence and determinant factors of stunting among early adolescent school girls (age 10-14 years) of Gondar town. A multi stage sampling method was used to select a sample of 662 adolescent girls in selected primary schools in Gondar Town. Pre-tested structured interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect the required data. We used SPSS Version 20.0 and WHO Anthro-plus software to analyze the data. Bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were run to identify factors associated with adolescent stunting. Adjusted odds ratio with its 95% confidence interval and a P- value ≤ 0.05 was used to declare a statistical significant. Results: We estimated a prevalence of stunting to be 27.5% [95% CI: 25.5% - 29.5%]. The odds of stunting in adolescent girls was found to be higher among those in grade 5 [AOR; 95%CI: 1.90; 1.13 - 3.20], had a meal frequency of less than or equal to three times per day [AOR; 95%CI: 2.37; 1.60-3.50], and those who are from food insecure families [AOR; 95%CI: 2.52; 1.70 - 3.73]. On the other side, adolescent girls whose their mothers’ were government employees [AOR; 95%CI: 0.48; 0.26 – 0.89] and merchants [AOR; 95%CI: 0.43; 0.28 – 0.67] were less stunted as compared to adolescent girls who had a mother who were housewife’s. Conclusion: we found that stunting in early adolescent school girls become a significant public health problem and much needs to be done to improve nutritional status of girls in the first 1000 days of perinatal period to reduce a burden of stunting during adolescent period.


Author(s):  
Sreeshma Pavithran ◽  
D. D. Bant

Background: Adolescence is a period with rapid growth drive and demands higher nutrition. Improving Nutritional status of rural adolescent girls becomes the cornerstone of community’s nutritional status and target intervention for breaking intergeneration cycle of nutritional deficiencies. The objective of the study was to determine nutritional status and study the demographic factors affecting nutritional status of rural adolescent girls in Dharwad district.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 350 adolescent school girls studying in eight high schools in rural area of Dharwad district during July – September 2017. Demographic profile and dietary pattern was obtained. Anthropometric measurement and clinical examination was done. Statistical analysis was done using SSPS package.Results: Study found 14.9% of rural adolescent girls were under- weight for their age. Based on BMI, 25.2% of girls were under-nourished and 3.7% were over nourished. Significant relation with age, type of diet and age of menarche was found at p value <0.05.Conclusions: There is high prevalence of under nutrition among adolescent girls and is under nutrition is associated with micronutrient deficiencies like anaemia. There is need to create awareness to improve the nutritional needs of adolescent girls in rural areas.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zelalem Belayneh ◽  
Birhanie Mekuriaw

Abstract Background Menstruation is a normal physiological process of females at their reproductive age. However, it is surrounded with social taboos and supernatural beliefs. The poor knowledge and understanding of menstruation may lead to unsafe hygienic practice that intern increases the risk of reproductive and genito-urinary tract infections, cervical cancer, school drop-out, poor academic performance and overall poor quality of life. Despite such clinical and academic effects, the knowledge and hygienic practice of adolescent girls towards menstruation is not well addressed in Ethiopia, particularly among school adolescent girls. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and menstrual hygiene practice among adolescent school girls in southern Ethiopia. Methods This was an institutional based cross-sectional study conducted at Gedeo zone high schools among 791 randomly selected adolescent girls using multi stage sampling technique. Data were collected using interviewer administered questionnaire. The collected data were entered to EPI-INFO (soft ware) and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Bivariable and multivariable logistics analyses were computed to identify factors associated with the poor menstrual hygienic practice. During bi-variable analysis, variables with P-values of less than 0.25 were entered to multivariable model for further analysis. In the final model, P-value of less than 0.05 was used as a base to identify factors having a statistically significant association with poor menstrual hygiene practice at corresponding 95% confidence interval. Result From a total of 791 adolescent girls participated in this study, 68.3% had poor knowledge of menstruation. About 48.1% of school girls used absorbent materials, and 69.5% clean their external genitalia. Generally, 60.3% of girls had poor menstrual hygienic practice. Age less than 15 years [OR = 1.71:95% CI (1.22, 2.39)], longer days of menstrual flow [OR = 2.51:95% CI (1.66, 3.80)] and poor knowledge of menses [OR = 1.48:95% CI (1.04, 2.1)] had a significantly associated with poor menstrual hygiene practice. Conclusion Majority of adolescent school girls had poor knowledge regarding menstruation and their hygienic practices are incorrect. This demonstrates a need to design acceptable awareness creation and advocacy programs to improve the knowledge and promote safe hygienic practice of adolescent school girls during menstruation.


Author(s):  
Thounaojam Tamphasana ◽  
Bishwalata Rajkumari ◽  
Longjam Usharani Devi

Background: Adolescent girls’ understanding of menstruation is characterized by poor knowledge and erroneous beliefs about menstruation. This study aims to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding menstrual hygiene among adolescent schoolgirls and to assess any factors associated with menstrual hygiene.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May 2017 to April 2019 among 1963 school girls of class 8 to 12 standards in Imphal-East District, Manipur. From the list of schools in the district, schools were selected randomly by lottery method and all eligible girls in the selected schools were included. A predesigned self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS IBM Statistics version 21. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to test for association. A p value<0.05 was taken as statistically significant.Results: The mean (±SD) age was 15.45 (±1.59) years. More than half (51.3%) of the respondents had good knowledge regarding menstruation. Majority (60.2%) of the respondents have good attitude regarding menstruation. Studying in higher class AOR (95% CI) of 1.399 (1.157-1.675), Christian by religion AOR (95% CI) of 1.640 (1.038-2.591), higher educational level of father AOR (95% CI) 4.492 (1.492-13.52), studying in private schools AOR (95% CI) of 1.370 (1.031-1.172) and belonging to rural community AOR (95% CI) 1.266 (1.025-1.500) were significantly more likely to have good knowledge about menstruation.Conclusions: More than half of the respondents had good knowledge and three-fifth of them had good attitude. Health education on menstruation and menstrual hygiene should be incorporated early enough in the school curriculum to prepare girls for menstruation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-89
Author(s):  
Suneela Garg ◽  
Mongjam Meghachandra Singh ◽  
Yamini Marimuthu ◽  
Amod Borle ◽  
Nidhi Bhatnagar ◽  
...  

Background: School absenteeism during menstruation and its related effects are preventable through identification of factors associated with it and implementation of region specific appropriate public health measures. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of school absenteeism during menstruation and its associated factors among adolescent girls residing in the resettlement colonies of Delhi. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the urban resettlement colonies of Delhi during 2019 in which 712 school going adolescent girls were interviewed. The details about school absenteeism, its perceived reasons, various socio-demographic details, menstrual hygiene practices were assessed using pretested semi structured questionnaire. The data were entered in MS Excel and analysed using STATA statistical software version 14. Results: The prevalence of school absenteeism during menstruation among adolescent girls of resettlement colony was 43.1%(95% CI:39.5 – 46.7). Out of 307 girls who had school absenteeism, 285(92.8%) had missed for 1-3days. The most common self-reported reasons for school absenteeism during menstruation were pain during menstruation (75.6%) followed by staining of cloths(43.6%) and uncomfortable feeling(39.4%). Studying in government school (PR=1.4, 95% CI:1.1-2.0), suffering from menstruation-related problems(aPR=1.9, 95% CI:1.5-2.4) and pads being provided from schools(PR=1.3, 95% CI:1.1-1.7) were significantly associated with school absenteeism. Conclusions: Almost half of the adolescent girls in resettlement colonies had school absenteeism. The characteristics like government school, pads being provided from school, menstruation related problems like weakness, irritation, perceived weight gain and breast pain was significantly associated with school absenteeism. The factors associated with school absenteeism needs to be addressed with appropriate public health interventions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Azmera Tamrat ◽  
Yigizie Yeshaw ◽  
Abel Fekadu Dadi

Introduction. Stunting is a crucial indicator of long-term chronic undernutrition that reflects a failure to reach a linear growth. Adolescent girls are potentially at a higher risk of stunting as they are traditionally married at an early age in low-income countries. In Ethiopia, stunting has mostly been examined in early childhood, with limited information at the early adolescent age. Therefore, this study is aimed at determining the prevalence of stunting and its associated factors among early adolescent school girls age 10 to 14 in Gondar town. Methods. We conducted a school-based cross-sectional study. A multistage sampling method was used to sample 662 adolescent girls in selected primary schools. A pretested, structured, and interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect the required data. Stata Version 14 and WHO Anthro-plus software were used to analyze the data. The bivariable and multivariable logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with stunting. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated, and a p value ≤ 0.05 was considered to declare statistically significant variables. Results. The prevalence of stunting was 27.5% [95% CI: 25.5%-29.5%]. The odds of stunting were found to be higher among grade 5 students [AOR; 95% CI: 1.90; 1.13-3.20], those who reported a daily meal frequency of less than three [AOR; 95% CI: 2.37; 1.60-3.50], and those who were from food-insecure families [AOR; 95% CI: 2.52; 1.70-3.73]. Adolescent girls whose mothers were government employees [AOR; 95% CI: 0.48; 0.26–0.89] or merchants [AOR; 95% CI: 0.43; 0.28–0.67] were less likely to be stunted compared to those whose mothers were housewives. Conclusion. Stunting among early adolescent girls is found to be a moderate public health problem. A school-based nutritional program might be helpful to reduce stunting in this group of adolescent girls.


Author(s):  
Pathman A ◽  
Aziah BD ◽  
Zahiruddin WM ◽  
Mohd S ◽  
Sukeri S ◽  
...  

Background: Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease with a worldwide distribution, especially in developing countries such as Malaysia. This study was designed to explore the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices (KABP) toward leptospirosis among the communities in northeastern Malaysia and to determine the sociodemographic factors associated with the KABP toward leptospirosis. A cross-sectional study using a stratified sampling method was conducted among 214 individuals in four locales in northeastern Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 214 respondents in northeastern Malaysia using a multi-stage stratified random sampling method. The study population was divided into two groups based on geographical locations: urban and rural. All data were entered and analyzed using the IBM Statistics for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 software for Windows (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). The continuous variables were presented using mean and standard deviation (SD), whereas the categorical variables were described using frequency and percentage. Multiple logistic regression was performed to determine the associated factors for good KABP toward leptospirosis among the respondents. Results: It was found that 52.8% of respondents had good knowledge, 84.6% had positive attitudes, 59.8% had positive beliefs, and 53.7% had satisfactory practices. There were no significant sociodemographic factors associated with knowledge and practice, except for educational status, which was significant in the attitude and belief domains. Those with higher education exhibited better attitudes (Odds Ratio (OR) 3.329; 95% Coefficient Interval (CI): 1.140, 9.723; p = 0.028) and beliefs (OR 3.748; 95% CI: 1.485, 9.459; p = 0.005). The communities in northeastern Malaysia generally have good knowledge and a high level of positive attitude; however, this attitude cannot be transformed into practice as the number of people with satisfactory practice habits is much lower compared to those with positive attitudes. As for the belief domain, the communities must have positive beliefs to perceive the threat of the disease. Conclusions: Our current health program on preventing leptospirosis is good in creating awareness and a positive attitude among the communities, but is not sufficient in promoting satisfactory practice habits. In conclusion, more attention needs to be paid to promoting satisfactory practice habits among the communities, as they already possess good knowledge and positive attitudes and beliefs.


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