Puberty to womanhood module: an Interprofessional approach for reproductive health education among adolescent schoolgirls

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents in India lack knowledge of reproductive health and hygiene and often enter puberty completely unprepared. There is a growing need to incorporate programmes to educate schoolgirls to adopt healthy practices and attitudes towards reproductive health. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A validated ‘Puberty to womanhood’ module was prepared by an interprofessional team. A workshop for 402 adolescent girls was conducted on menstrual health and hygiene. MCQs consisting of questions about menstruation and hygienic menstrual practices were administered as a pre-test and two post-tests (immediately and three months post-workshop). Another questionnaire about menstrual health behaviour was also administered as a pre-test and three months post-workshop. Paired t-test and McNemar’s test were used as appropriate, and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Assessment of the module revealed significant improvement in knowledge of menstruation and hygienic menstrual practices immediately after the workshops (p<0.001). There was a significant decrease in knowledge about menstruation three months post-workshop (p<0.001), with no significant change in the test score of hygienic menstrual practices. A significant improvement in practices during menstruation (p<0.001) was observed in participants who reported cleaning their genitalia at every visit to the toilet, using a single sanitary pad for more than 10 hours and disposing the used pads in dustbins (p=0.048). CONCLUSION: The inclusion of the ‘Puberty to womanhood’ module enhanced and reinforced knowledge about menstruation and the appropriate hygienic practices during menstruation.