title: Improving quality of life with new menstrual hygiene practices among adolescent tribal girls in rural Gujarat, India.
abstract: The Government of India has started a new scheme aimed at offering sanitary pads at a subsidized rate to adolescent girls in rural areas. This paper addresses menstrual health and hygiene practices among adolescent girls in a rural, tribal region of South Gujarat, India, and their experiences using old cloths, a new soft cloth (falalin) and sanitary pads. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected in a community-based study over six months, with a pre-and post- design, among 164 adolescent girls from eight villages. Questions covered knowledge of menstruation, menstrual practices, quality of life, experience and satisfaction with the different cloths/pads and symptoms of reproductive tract infections. Knowledge regarding changes of puberty, source of menstrual blood and route of urine and menstrual flow was low. At baseline 90% of girls were using old cloths. At the end of the study, 68% of adolescent girls said their first choice was falalin cloths, while 32% said it was sanitary pads. None of them preferred old cloths. The introduction of falalin cloths improved quality of life significantly (p<0.000) and to a lesser extent also sanitary pads. No significant reduction was observed in self-reported symptoms of reproductive tract infections. Falalin cloths were culturally more acceptable as they were readily available, easy to use and cheaper than sanitary pads.
authors.affiliation: Health Training and Resource Center, SEWA Rural, Bharuch, Gujarat, India. shahshobha30@gmail.com
authors.forename: Shobha P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Rajesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: Pankaj P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Dhiren K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Modi
authors.forename: Shrey A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Desai
authors.forename: Lata
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Desai
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D052576:Menstrual Hygiene Products; D011788:Quality of Life; D012424:Rural Population; D055815:Young Adult