Context: There are vast disparities of information gap between urban and rural adolescent girls in India, which do have an impact on the practices during menstruation.
Aim: To assess and compare the knowledge, perceptions, and practices of adolescent girls regarding menstrual hygiene in rural and urban areas of Jodhpur.
Settings and design: It was a cross-sectional study, which was conducted on school going adolescent girls in urban and rural schools of Jodhpur.
Materials and methods: The sample size for the study was 450, which was divided into rural and urban adolescent girls. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection.
Statistical analysis used: Data were analyzed using SPSS v. 16. Inferences were drawn using Chi-square test and t test.
Results: The mean age of menarche was 13.41 ± 1.07 years. A significantly more number of girls from an urban area (56.2%) were using sanitary napkins during menstruation. Only around one-fourth of the girls in study area had ever been counseled for menstrual hygiene. Awareness about adolescent health clinic was significantly more among urban girls.
Conclusion: Significant differences were observed among urban and rural adolescent girls in terms of knowledge, perception, and practices related to menstrual hygiene.
Keywords: Adolescents; hygiene; knowledge; menstruation; perception.