Manipal Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences
Article Title
Menstrual pattern, practices, problems and its impact on activities during menstruation among adolescent girls at Chennai, India
Abstract
One of the indicators of the women’s reproductive health is the menstrual cycle and menstruation has a different pattern. Hence, a study was undertaken to assess the correlation between the menstrual pattern, practices, problems, and its impact on activities during menstruation among adolescent girls. A descriptive correlational design was used. Samples of 123 adolescent girls were selected by using the non-probability convenience sampling technique. A structured multiple-choice questionnaire was used to obtain the demographic data, menstrual pattern, menstrual practice, and a checklist was used to assess the menstrual problems and their impact on activities during menstruation by the selfreport method. The results revealed that the majority of the adolescent girls had a partially abnormal menstrual pattern and all used sanitary napkins as absorbent. The majority had reported some problems during menstruation with dysmenorrhea being the predominant one and had reported some impact on the activities during menstruation with special reference to absenteeism from school. There was a positive correlation with the activities during menstruation, which was highly significant. There was a statistically significant association between age at menarche and menstrual pattern at p<.05 level of significance and family income and menstrual problems at p<.001 level of significance. A school awareness program on menarche and menstrual problems is needed for better understanding and management.