scholarly journals Socio-cultural barriers for menstrual hygiene management among adolescent school girls of southern India

Author(s):  
Logeswari K. ◽  
Jeram Parmar ◽  
Deodatt M. Suryawanshi

Background: India is home to 20% of the world’s adolescent population, with 1 in 10 children currently experiencing puberty. Menstruation, a physiological process in females is influenced not only by race, nutrition and heredity but also by the socio-cultural milieu. In Indian society, the social and cultural restrictions influence the knowledge, attitudes and the practices of adolescent girls towards menstrual hygiene. The present study was carried out to find out the level of knowledge, attitude and practice and the restrictions they face during the process of menstruation.Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional study where 489 adolescent school going females of the age group of 13-15 were recruited using simple random sampling from a cluster of schools and interviewed using a semi structured questionnaire for their knowledge, attitudes, practices and the restrictions they face during menstruation. A scoring system was adopted and categorised as poor, average and good.Results: 423 (88.6%) participants demonstrated average to poor knowledge scores, while 279 (57.1%) participants demonstrated average to poor practice scores. There was a significant difference observed between the educational status of mother (p=0.041) and the knowledge scores of study participants. There was no correlation observed between the monthly per capita income of households and the knowledge (r=0.097) and practice scores (r=0.0034). 375 (76%) study participants faced multiple restrictions during menstruation like not allowed to pray or visit temples (93.6%), total seclusion (74.6%), wash clothes separately (74.6%), sleep on floor (74.6%), restriction on leisure (70.4%), eat out of separate utensils (70.4%), and restriction on consumption of food items (49.8%).Conclusions: Knowledge and practices regarding menstrual hygiene was low among study participants and was influenced by various prevalent socio-cultural restrictions. 

Author(s):  
Kuldeep Jagannath Dabade ◽  
Sheetal Kuldeep Dabade

Background: Menstruation is still regarded as something unclean or dirty in Indian society and it is strongly related with misconceptions and cultural restrictions. Learning about hygiene during menstruation is a vital aspect of health education for adolescent girls as patterns that are developed in adolescence are likely to persist into adult life. Methods: A community based cross sectional study conducted in urban and rural field practice area of Department of Community Medicine, Khaja Banda Nawaz Institute of Medical Sciences, Gulbarga from Feb 2015 to July 2015. A total 230 adolescent girls were included in the study of which 123 from urban and 107 from rural area, after taking their verbal consent. Results: Total 163 (70.9%) adolescent girls were aware about menstruation before the attainment of menarche. Awareness in urban area 95 (77.2%) was found higher compared to rural area 68(63.5%) and this difference was found to be statistically significant (p<0.02). It has been found that 83(67.5%) study participants from urban area used sanitary napkin during menstruation compared to only 56(52.3%) from rural area and this difference found statistically significant (p<0.01). Conclusions: Overall awareness about menstruation was found low in both urban and rural area and needed to be increased by intensive health education among adolescents. 


Author(s):  
Dasari Tejaswini ◽  
Suhas Kulkarni ◽  
Dolar Doshi ◽  
Adepu Srilatha

AbstractBackgroundAesthetic alterations in the face can be self-perceived and can affect quality of life in young adults.ObjectiveTo assess the impact of malocclusion on self- perceived oro-facial behaviour among young adults.MethodsA Cross sectional study was conducted among 638 young adults (aged 18–21 years) of Hyderabad city. One college from each of the five zones of the Hyderabad city (five colleges) were selected by simple random sampling procedure. A 21-item Oro-facial investment scale (OFIS) questionnaire assessing self-perceived oral health knowledge, attitude, practice and Dental Aesthetic Index (DAI) assessing the severity of malocclusion was used. Data were analysed with standard statistical software (SPSS, Statistical package for the social sciences, version 20.0). p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsMales had higher mean scores for knowledge (2.90 ± 0.49) than females (2.73 ± 0.82) and was statistically significant (p = 0.002*). No statistically significant gender differences were found in relation to attitude and practice. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there was a significant difference in all the three scores (knowledge, attitude, practice) with respect to age, with significantly high score for knowledge and practice among 18 year old subjects (p = 0.0001*; p = 0.0003* respectively) and attitude among 21 year old subjects (p = 0.0049*). No statistically significant age, gender differences were found in relation to DAI scores. Upon correlation, DAI significantly and positively correlated with knowledge (p = 0.03*) and attitude (p = 0.0001*).ConclusionThis study has shown significant impact of malocclusion on the self-perceived oro-facial behaviour.


Author(s):  
Neerja Agarwal ◽  
Nutan Soni ◽  
S. P. Singh ◽  
G. P. Soni

Background: Adolescent age group among girls have been recognized as a special period which signifies the transition from girlhood to womanhood. Menstruation is generally considered as unclean in the Indian society. Most of the adolescent girls had incomplete and inaccurate information about the menstrual physiology and hygiene as reported by many Indian studies. Very few authors have included the detailed aspects of the menstrual practices among adolescent girls.Methods: The current Community based cross sectional study was conducted by department of obstetrics and Gynaecology in connection with department of community medicine, Raipur Institute of Medical Science, Raipur (C.G), India. Among the adolescent school going girls in the field practice area of the Rural Health Unit and Training Centre during study period of 6 month from July 2017 to December 2017. 263 girls from the above mentioned schools, of the 8th and 9th standards, were selected for the study.Results: Majority of the school going adolescent girls belongs to 13 and 14 year of age. 50.95% , 21.67% and 12.93% girls reported that they had their menarche at the age of 13 year, 12 year and 14 year respectively. Majority of the girls were using cloth (49.81%) and only 17.87% were using sanitary napkins. Cleaning of external genitalia was not satisfactory in 32.70% of the girls. Only 58.17% girls used both soap and water for cleaning the genitalia. Pain in abdomen (59.70%) was found to be the most frequent complaint during menstruation.Conclusions: Knowledge on menstruation is sub-optimal and the practices are unacceptable for proper hygiene among study subjects. Menstrual hygiene is an important issue needs to be ensured.


Author(s):  
L. Kannan ◽  
Praveena P.

Background: Stress is a mental, physical and emotional response to life demands. Long hours of work, client demands, changing laws- creates stress and eventually hypertension among advocates. Well-being of the advocates are being questioned. Hence the main objective of the study is to evaluate the relationship between stress and hypertension among practising advocates.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of 300 practising advocates at Madurai district court for a period of 1 year by simple random sampling method.Results: Around 133 (44.33%) and 167 (55.66%) of study participants were in level of high stress and low stress respectively. Among high stressed participants, a majority of 113 (84.96%) were found to be hypertensives and among the low stressed participants only 10 (5.98%) were hypertensives. The difference of observation was found to be statistically significant (p=0.0000).Conclusions: In conclusion the study explains that practising advocates with high perceived stress 113 (84.96%) were found to be hypertensives. Stress has a significant association with hypertension. The right way to manage stress is to implement coping strategies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-14
Author(s):  
Zohreh Tajabadi ◽  
Matineh Sadat Miri ◽  
Soliman Ahmadi ◽  
Matineh Pourrahimi ◽  
Mojtaba Abdi ◽  
...  

Background: Students are considered part of the capital of each country. Several factors can affect their educational status and, as a result, contribute to their academic failure. The current study seeks to investigate the relationship between students’ academic failure and the affecting factors with the Iranian Educational Ranking of Universities. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The required sample size was calculated using Cochran’s formula. A researcher-made questionnaire with 5 parts was used to collect data. Kruskal Wallis and Spearman’s analysis of variance was used for analysis. The significance level was considered as 0.05. Results: A total of 1215 people participated; 13.7% of students had had an academic failure and 2.0% of them were on academic probation. There was a correlation between university RAD rank and academic failure (r = -0.098 and P = 0.0001) as well as student satisfaction (r = 0.264 – P = 0.0001). There was a significant difference between an academic drop and academic grade in three ranks of university (Pv= 0.0001), and, interestingly, having moved from Rank 1 to 3, having academic grade increases, and having academic failure decreases. Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, the higher ranked the college campus is on the RAD scale, the higher the academic failure rate. For annual assessment of universities, it is proposed that assessment of academic failure and grades be used as a benchmark.


Author(s):  
Shanthi Edward ◽  
Praveena Periasamy

Background: Advocates, being stressed out and depressed in the law profession due to unstable work pattern, work overload and lack in coping up skills. They thrive a lot to survive in the profession. In such circumstances, lawyers may lean on alcohol or tobacco. In view of above issues, one of the main objectives of the study is to evaluate the association between use of alcohol, tobacco, smoking and hypertension among practising advocates.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of 300 practising advocates at Madurai district court for a period of 1 year by simple random sampling method. Data was collected using structured interview schedule and analysed using SPSS.Results: Around 263 (87.66%) study participants were non-smokers and 37 (12.33%) were tobacco smokers. Among the tobacco smokers, a majority of 24 (64.86%) were found to be hypertensives (p=0.002). In the current study among the alcohol consumers, a majority of 26 (55.32%) were hypertensives and among the non-consumers of alcohol, only 38.34% were hypertensives (p=0.044).Conclusions: Advocates being professionals are well educated, informative and aware of complications. Adoption of healthy life style practices, the prevalence of hypertension may be reduced among the advocate community. Life style modifications such as cessation of smoking, alcohol and tobacco should be adopted. Promotive activities like arrangement of health camps in the court, health education, counselling on self-care, stress bursting leisure time activities would reduce the dependency on tobacco and alcohol.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farahnaz Joukar ◽  
Fariborz Mansour-Ghanaei ◽  
Mohammad Reza Naghipour ◽  
Tolou Hasandokht

Background: Health care workers (HCWs) represent high risk population for viral hepatitis infection. Objectives: This study sought to assess the knowledge of HCWs regarding hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) infection. Methods: In a multi-center cross sectional study, all HCWs from eight teaching hospitals were invited to participate in the study and to fill in a self-administered questionnaire. Results: A total of 1008 eligible HCWs have responded to the study. A high proportion of the study participants (55.4% and 52.9%) had unsatisfactory knowledge about HBV and HCV. Mean knowledge score toward HBV was significantly higher among more educated staff, p <0.001 and vaccinated personnel, P=0.02. Majority of responders answered correctly to transmission questions toward HBV and HCV (90% and 80%, respectively). There was statistically significant difference in only transmission domain score between various hospitals (p<0.05). The highest scores were related to surgical hospital. Conclusion: Although more than ninety percent of our participants were educated about HBV and HCV, knowledge about nature of disease, prevention, treatment and vaccine availability was unsatisfactory. Continuous training program toward viral infection is a matter of necessity.


Author(s):  
Dnyanesh Limaye ◽  
Gerhard Fortwengel ◽  
Vaidehi Limaye ◽  
Aishwarya Bhasi ◽  
Aditya Dhule ◽  
...  

Background: India has the third largest HIV epidemic in the world. The Indian epidemic is characterized by low levels in the general population and elevated concentrations among high-risk groups. The present study was planned to determine the awareness of HIV among students from Mumbai University.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among students from Mumbai University, India during May–June 2017. Two hundred and fifty students were approached to participate in the study of which 199 agreed to participate (males: 132; females: 67). Pretested questionnaire was distributed and collected data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23.Results: Study participants had high knowledge (86%) and attitude score (87%). There was no significant difference between males and female participants for attitude and knowledge, except for one question regarding knowledge about HIV transmission via breastfeeding to child.Conclusions: Present study showed that there are no misconceptions or negative attitudes regarding HIV among students. A longitudinal study with a larger sample size across India is recommended for further investigation.


Author(s):  
Murali Lingala ◽  
Sneha Simon ◽  
Bhagath . ◽  
Kavitha .

Background: Tobacco kills approximately 1 million people annually in India and is responsible for almost half of all cancers in men and quarter of all cancers in women. Smokeless tobacco (SLT) is one such form that is culturally and socially acceptable by women especially in rural India. The study was aimed to estimate the prevalence of smokeless tobacco consumption among women, prevalence of exposure to second hand smoke and to determine the factors associated with it.Methods: A community based cross sectional study was done among 190 women in the rural field practice area of department of community medicine of Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal during the period of October 2019 to December 2019. Data was collected using simple random sampling. A semi structured questionnaire was prepared with the help of global adult tobacco survey proforma. The data was analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) 20.00.Results: Prevalence of smokeless tobacco consumption was 57% and the most common form of tobacco being consumed was tobacco with pan (40.3%). The prevalence of exposure to second hand smoke at home was 61%. The most common reason for initiation was peer pressure. High prevalence of consumption of smokeless tobacco was seen in unemployed and illiterate women.Conclusions: The prevalence of smokeless tobacco consumption is higher among women in this study and this indicates the lack of awareness and the need for better strategies to reduce the burden.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-82
Author(s):  
Megha Pradhan ◽  
Ujjwal Joshi ◽  
Umesh Raj Aryal ◽  
Sumita Upadhyay ◽  
Amrita Shrestha

Background: Injury to a young child’s teeth and face is a traumatic experience for the child and parents. Prompt and effective action on traumatized teeth significantly increases the likelihood of a positive treatment outcome. Adequate knowledge of school teachers in emergency situation arising during school hours can prove to be a boon for the child’soral health.Objectives: To assess the knowledge of school teachers of Bhaktapur about emergency management of dental trauma and also to measure the relationship between socio demographic characteristic of teachers and knowledge about dental emergencies.Methods: The cross sectional study was conducted among 424 schools teachers of Bhaktapur district from September 2014 to March 2015. Simple random sampling was done to select the schools. Questionnaire was distributed among the teachers after taking their informed written consent. Data was collected and sent for statistical evaluation. Frequenciesand percentage were calculated. Chi-square and Fisher’s Exact test were applied.Results: Nearly one third (32.2%) teachers who had information on dental trauma knew the proper management of displaced teeth (p=0.01). Statistically significant difference was found among those who had fi rst aid training and proper management of displaced teeth (p=0.04). Teachers who had experienced dental trauma in their students were only confident of managing displacement of traumatized teeth (p=0.02).Conclusion: Knowledge of the school teachers in Bhaktapur was seen to be inadequate for emergency management of fracture and avulsed tooth.


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