Menstrual Disorder, Its Associated Factors and Relationship with Academic Performance among Female High School Students of Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT Background: Menstrual problems are the major gynecological problems especially among adolescent girls due to relative immaturity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. It affects three forth of menstruating adolescent girls and results high school absenteeism and poor academic performance. Despite its negative influence on school performance, it gets low priority as compared with other health problems. This study helps for the better understanding of the magnitude of menstrual disorders and its predictors to prevention and management it. Objective: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of menstrual disorder, associated factors, and relationship with academic performance among female high school students of Gedeo zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2021/2022. Method: A school based cross-sectional study design was employed at 723 randomly selected high school students of Gedeo zone, Southern Ethiopia from April 11 – June 10, 2022. A multi-stage stratified sampling techniques was used. Epi-Data Version 4.6 and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 25.0 were used for data entry and analysis, respectively. Bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were employed to identify factors associated with menstrual disorder. During bi-variable analysis, variables with P-values of ≤0.25 were entered into the multivariable logistic regression analyses. In the multivariable logistic regression analyses, variables with a P value of 8 hours) to reduce the risk of developing menstrual disorder.