An Interventional Study on Sanitary Pads Usages Promotion Programme among Adolescent Girls in Urban and Rural Areas of Vadodara District

Introduction: Adolescent is a time of quick progress from girlhood to womanhood. This is the period when first feminine cycle (Menarche) happens. Lack of Menstrual hygiene can lead to morbidity and other complication such as UTI, Scabies in vaginal area, abnormal abdominal pain, etc. A sanitary napkin is a permeable thing worn in the under clothing by ladies and young ladies – girls who are menstruating or bleeding due to birth, encountering an unsuccessful labor or premature birth, after any gynecologic medical procedure, or in whatever other circumstance where it is important to retain a progression of blood from the vagina. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes regarding menstruation among school-going adolescent girls. Methods: In this Interventional study was 11-19 years of school going adolescent girls in rural and urban areas. One school from each area was selected for the study purpose. After obtaining the permission from ethical committee, we had start data collection. One school from rural area named Gujrat village and one school from the urban named Shree Ambe School, Waghodia road, Vadodara were selected for the study purpose. Informed assent form from the adolescent girls and consent from their parents were taken. Then gave them the questionnaires which comprised of personal data, the Knowledge, belief, attitude regarding menstruation, the Disorders or problems faced or experience by school going adolescent girls during menstruation and the usage of sanitary pad usage among school going adolescent girls. Questionnaire one on personal data i.e. – name, age, education, religion, etc. and during first visit, we have collected baseline knowledge and other information as per our questionnaire and then we did interventions like poster presentations, small lectures, counseling regarding knowledge attitude and use of sanitary pad. We also have distributed a sanitary napkin among all the recruited participants. After 15 days, we have collected post interventional data on same questionnaire again to assess the effect of interventions. Results: Regarding Current MP Status of the study participants having most of the participants have started MP. (92.5%) Symptoms / Difficulties, Study participants have experience during their last MP, which shows Embarrassment and irritability are the most common difficulties faced. Pre-test and Post-test improvement in knowledge and attitude towards use of Sanitary Pad among study participants. Conclusion: At the end of the study, we were able to find out major improvement in knowledge and attitude towards use of sanitary pad among study participants which is higher than other studies conducted in India. Sanitary pad distributed among study participants can encourage them to use in future also.