Urban-Rural Differences in Menstrual Hygiene Among Adolescent Girls and Its Implications on Health in India

INTRODUCTION: Although menstruation is a natural process, it is linked with several misconceptions, taboos, and socio-cultural restrictions, resulting in adolescent girls remaining ignorant of the awareness of hygienic health practices, which result in adverse health outcomes and vulnerability. METHODS: The present paper examines the knowledge and practice of a hygienic METHODS: of menstrual protection and to assess its adverse effects on adolescent’s health using binary logistic regression. NFHS-4 data collected from all the 640 districts of India in 2015-16 is used. The sample size of the present paper is 121,533 adolescent girls age 15-19. Information on the woman’s characteristics, marriage, fertility, contraception, reproductive health, sexual behaviour, and other health issues was also collected in NFHS-4. RESULTS: The result shows that 42 per cent of adolescent girls use sanitary napkins, 62 per cent use cloth, and 16 per cent use locally prepared napkins. Overall, 58 per cent of adolescent girls age 15-19 years use a hygienic method of menstrual protection in India, more (79 per cent) in urban areas as compared with just 49 per cent in rural areas. DISCUSSION: More than half of adolescent girls in rural areas and one-fifth adolescent girls in urban areas are not able to use a hygienic method of menstrual protection which leads to a lot more complications to their reproductive health and subsequently, it affects the overall health status of adolescents in India.