Practice of Menstrual Hygiene and Associated Factors among Female High School Students in Adama Town

Background: Good menstrual hygienic practices are essential during menstruation period. Young women especially in developing countries often lack information about good menstrual hygiene practices. The objective of this study was to assess the level of menstrual hygienic practice and the associated factors among female high school students in Adama town. Methods: A cross-sectional, institution based study was conducted from April 11th-25th, 2016. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the participants. Data was cleaned, coded and entered in to Epi-data 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20:00. Binary and multiple logistic regression analysis were done to determine the association between the menstrual hygienic practice and the predicator variables. A p-value of less than 0.05 was taken as significant association. Result: A total of 398 female students were involved in the study giving a response rate of 94.3%. Of the total respondents about 57% had good level of menstrual hygiene practice. Mothers education status AOR=0.608; 95% CI=0.374-0.990, source of money for sanitary materials AOR=2.267; 95% CI=1.076, 4.772, respondents feeling on comfort ability of the school AOR=0.557; 95% CI=0.366-0.846 were significantly associated with level of knowledge about menstrual hygienic practice. Conclusion: The study showed that more than half of the respondents had good level of menstrual hygiene practice. Mothers’ educational status, source of money for sanitary materials and respondents feeling on comfort ability of the school were found to be predictors of menstrual hygiene practice among the students. Thus, designing health information and communication programs on awareness about menstruation and menstrual hygiene practice is implicated.