KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF MENSTRUAL HYGIENE AMONG PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN AKINYELE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OYO STATE

Adolescents are often less informed, less experienced and less comfortable accessing
reproductive health information and service than adults and as a result of this, many
adolescents lack appropriate and sufficient information regarding menstrual hygiene
which often result in incorrect and unhealthy behavior during their menstrual period
several studies have been done on adolescent reproductive health but little attention has
been directed towards menstrual hygiene, therefore this study assessed knowledge,
attitude and practice of menstrual hygiene among public secondary school students in
Akinyele local government area of Oyo state. Health belief model provided the framework.
Descriptive research design of survey and correlational types were used for this study.
Multi stage sampling procedure was used to select 1200 female junior/senior secondary
school adolescents in Akinyele local government. Menstrual Hygiene Knowledge
questionnaire (MHKQ) (r= 0.72), Attitude Towards Menstrual Hygiene Questionnaire
(ATMHQ) (r= 0.81) and Menstrual Hygiene Practice Questionnaire (MHPQ) (r=0.79)
were instrument used for data collection. Chi-square and Pearson product moment
correlation was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance The research
question was to assess the sources of information on menstrual hygiene among in-school
adolescents.. The result of the study revealed that there was no significant knowledge of
menstrual hygiene among secondary school students in Akinyele Local Government area
(X2cal= 11.92, df= 10, p > .05), no significant positive attitude towards menstrual hygiene
(X2cal= 34.20, df= 20, p < .05) and no significant practice of menstrual hygiene (X2cal=
18.20, df= 20, p < .05). the result also showed that there was no significant relationship
between knowledge and attitude towards menstrual hygiene among secondary school
students in Akinyele Local Government area (r=.011, p>.05)but there a significant
relationship between knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene (r=.855, p<.05).The
study concluded that public secondary schools students in Akinyele local government do
not have adequate knowledge of menstrual hygiene; have poor attitude towards menstrual
hygiene and do not practice of menstrual hygiene very well. The study therefore
recommended that skills-based health education; more involvement of adolescents
parents, schools system, society and government in menstrual hygiene. Also, there is a
need for adequate training for health teachers on menstrual health.