Effectiveness of information education and communication (IEC) on menstrual hygiene among adolescent school girls of Jumala district.

Research Report.

ABSTRACT: Menstruation and menstrual practices are darkened by taboos and socio-cultural restrictions resulting in adolescent girls remaining ignorant of the scientific facts and hygienic health practices, which sometimes result into adverse health outcomes. This study aimed to improve the impact Knowledge and practices after health education on "Menstruation and healthy menstrual practices" among female adolescents school students in Jumla district. A one group pre test design was used in the intervention phase of the study to evaluate the impact of health education intervention about menstrual knowledge and hugiene among female adolescents school students in Jumla district. The study was carried on government schools , Shree Janta Secondary Technical School, Mahat |Village , Chadanath Municipality, Jumla . The study comprised of 112 students was chosen from the above mentioned setting. Data were collected by using a self administered questionnaire sheet which covers all items related to menstrual knowledge and hygiene among female adolescents school students in Jumla district. There was significant improvement in girl's knowledge about nearly all menstruation relevant items pre-test compared to post-test. The study revealed that there were highly statistically significant differences in total knowledge and practice score of the studied sample after implementation of educational program. In pre test only 8.9% girls had high knowledge and 27.7% had good practice. This significantly increased at post test where 60.7% had high knowledge and 51.8% had good practice. The present study concluded that adolescents lacked appropriate knowledge and practices about menstruation in the pre-test program phase. After implementation of the program considerable improvements were noticed in adolescents girl's knowledge and practice. Therefore the educational program was successful in attaining its aims of positively changing the knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene . Key words: Menstruation, Knowledge, Practice, Menstrual hygiene.