EVALUATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF FEMALE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS TOWARDS MENSTRUAL HYGIENE IN ACHIEVERS UNIVERSITY OWO, ONDO STATE
Abstract
Introduction: This study assessed the level of knowledge,attitude, practice, and factors
influencing the practice of menstrual hygiene among female undergraduate students in
Achievers University Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria. Menstrual hygiene and adequate selfcare play an essential role in women’s reproductive health and wellbeing.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional research design and simple random sampling
technique was adopted for this study. A self-structured questionnaire was employed for
data collection. A sample size of 384 respondents were selected. The Statistical Package
for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 was used for data analysis. The level of
significance was set at p < 0.05.
Results: The mean ± SD age of participants was 23±0.742years. The study showed a
good knowledge level of 85.9%, positive attitude of 76%, and good practice of 60.4%
among respondents. The findings from this study shows that there is a significant
relationship between respondents’ class level and their knowledge of menstrual hygiene
(X2 =263.233, df =4, p< 0.05). Also, a significant relationship was found between
respondents’ age and attitude towards menstrual hygiene(X2=279.52, df =2, p< 0.05).
The factors influencing practice of menstrual hygiene include inability to afford sanitary
pads, lack of access to clean water for cleaning genitals, having heavy flow, inability to
change pad in school whenever necessary, and lack of parental care.
Conclusion: The study showed that the respondents had good knowledge, positive
attitude, and good practice regarding menstrual hygiene. The researcher recommends
that adequate health education should be given to female students on the concept of
menstrual hygiene and reproductive health in general; menstruation and its associated
problems should be freely discussed in schools and not seen as a taboo
Full-Text Access Notice
In accordance with the NERD Policy on promoting peer-reviewed publication, public access to the full text of a project, thesis or dissertation is restricted for three years, allowing the author and supervisors sufficient time to pursue peer-reviewed publication.
During this period, researchers with legitimate academic or research purposes may request authorisation directly from the author to enable NERD to release the indexed full texts of the work using the form below.