Effect of peer educator-PRAGATI (PeeR Action for Group Awareness through Intervention) on knowledge, attitude, and practice of menstrual hygiene in adolescent school girls

Rakhi Dwivedi; Charu Sharma; Pankaj Bhardwaj; Kuldeep Singh; Nitin Joshi; Prem Prakash Sharma

doi:10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_309_20

Effect of peer educator-PRAGATI (PeeR Action for Group Awareness through Intervention) on knowledge, attitude, and practice of menstrual hygiene in adolescent school girls

J Family Med Prim Care. 2020 Jul 30;9(7):3593-3599. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_309_20. eCollection 2020 Jul.

Authors

Rakhi Dwivedi¹, Charu Sharma², Pankaj Bhardwaj³, Kuldeep Singh⁴, Nitin Joshi³, Prem Prakash Sharma³

Affiliations

¹ School of Public Health, AIIMS, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
² Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, AIIMS, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
³ Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine, AIIMS, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
⁴ Department of Paediatrics, AIIMS, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.

Abstract

Context: Majority of the adolescent girls all over the world, suffer from anxiety, shame, discomfort, and isolation during menstruation. Awareness about menstrual hygiene and health can help them to overcome this situation.

Aims: The study aims to elicit the existing knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding menstruation and to assess the effectiveness of a structured training program through peer educators-PRAGATI (PeeR Action for Group Awareness through Intervention) on menstrual hygiene among adolescent school girls.

Subjects and methods: This was a prospective interventional study. A structured training program through peer educators (PRAGATI) was used on adolescent females for evaluating menstrual hygiene awareness and practices through pre- and posttest. McNemar's test was used for paired nominal data and the difference between pretest and posttest was assessed by the paired t-test.

Results: In the pretest, only 20.5% had adequate knowledge, 32.5% had poor knowledge, while 48.7% of girls had moderate knowledge about menstruation and menstrual hygiene. Post-intervention, 56.41% girls gained adequate knowledge (an increase of ~36%), 30.76% had moderate knowledge, and only 12.8% of them (a reduction of ~20%) still had poor knowledge. The mean increase of knowledge on menstrual hygiene in pretest and posttest analysis was statistically significant with P < 0.01.

Conclusion: The training by the peer educators (PRAGATI) in creating awareness about menstrual hygiene and bringing about a significant change in attitude and practice is an effective method of spreading awareness among adolescents on menstrual hygiene related sensitive issues. However, repeated sessions are required to create momentum and enthusiasm for learning new things.

Keywords: Adolescent; menstrual hygiene; menstruation; peer-group.