Seated women wearing head scarves and with children on their knees stare unsmiling at the camera. They are in a waiting room.

Monitoring Menstrual Health Knowledge: Awareness of Menstruation at Menarche as an Indicator

Sexual & reproductive health
Bangladesh
Myanmar
Uganda
Peer-reviewed papers
2022

As initiatives to support menstrual health are implemented globally, monitoring progress through a set of comprehensive indicators provides important feedback to direct policies and programs. One proposed core indicator is awareness of menstruation at menarche. In this paper, the authors undertook secondary analysis of data collected across four studies in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Uganda to support interpretation of this indicator. Findings support the usefulness of awareness of menstruation at menarche as an indicator to describe minimal knowledge of menstruation and suggest that awareness may signal greater knowledge, social support, and confidence in some settings.

Download this National Library of Medicine paper here. [Opens new tab]

 

Authors: Julie Hennegan, Zay Yar Swe, Kyu Kyu Than (Burnet Institute), Calum Smith, Lidwien Sol, Hilda Alberda,Justine N. Bukenya, Simon P. S. Kibira, Fredrick E. Makumbi, Kellogg J. Schwab, and Peter S. Azzopardi

 

Citation: Hennegan, J., Swe, Z. Y., Than, K. K., Smith, C., Sol, L., Alberda, H., Bukenya, J. N., Kibira, S., Makumbi, F. E., Schwab, K. J., & Azzopardi, P. S. (2022). Monitoring Menstrual Health Knowledge: Awareness of Menstruation at Menarche as an Indicator. Frontiers in global women’s health, 3, 832549. https://doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2022.832549

 

Image: Medical facility in Bar Sar Yar camp for displaced people, Rathedaung Township, Myanmar 2. © European Union ECHO Mallika Panorat via Flickr

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