Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, Mekelle, Ethiopia.
College for Public Health and Social Justice, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2020 Jun;149(3):287-291. doi: 10.1002/ijgo.13127. Epub 2020 Mar 15.
To evaluate the effect on school attendance of a menstrual hygiene intervention that distributes educational booklets to school children and menstrual hygiene kits to schoolgirls in northern Ethiopia.
Attendance was tracked for 8839 students in grades 7-12 during the 2015-2016 academic year when the intervention was implemented. Negative binomial regression was used to test whether student sex predicted post-intervention school absences when controlling for grade-level and pre-intervention absences. Similar attendance data were analyzed for 3569 students in grades 7, 9, and 11 for the 2014-2015 academic year as a historical comparison.
Over 12 211 educational booklets were distributed to students and 5991 menstrual hygiene kits were distributed to schoolgirls. After the intervention, girls had 24% fewer school absences than boys. Sex was not a predictor of absences during a similar time-period in the prior school year.
This is one of the first large studies to show a positive relationship between a menstrual hygiene intervention and girls' school attendance. These positive results suggest such interventions should be expanded to other schools in northern Ethiopia. Future research should explore whether similar interventions can also decrease the rate at which girls drop out of school around menarche.
评估在埃塞俄比亚北部向学生发放教育手册和女学生经期卫生套件的经期卫生干预措施对入学率的影响。
在实施干预措施的 2015-2016 学年，对 8839 名 7-12 年级的学生进行了出勤跟踪。在控制年级和干预前缺勤的情况下，使用负二项回归检验学生性别是否预测干预后的缺课情况。对 2014-2015 学年 7、9 和 11 年级的 3569 名学生进行了类似的出勤数据分析作为历史比较。
共向学生发放了超过 12211 本教育手册，向女学生发放了 5991 个经期卫生套件。干预后，女生的缺课率比男生低 24%。性别并不是前一学年同期缺勤的预测因素。
这是第一项表明经期卫生干预措施与女孩入学率之间存在正相关关系的大型研究之一。这些积极的结果表明，此类干预措施应在埃塞俄比亚北部的其他学校推广。未来的研究应探讨类似的干预措施是否也可以降低女孩在初潮时辍学的比率。
