Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Department of Community Health and Prevention, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2020 Apr 19;20(1):525. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-08627-3.
The last decade has highlighted how menstrual hygiene management (MHM) is a public health issue because of its link to health, education, social justice and human rights. However, measurement of MHM has not been validated across different studies. The objective of this manuscript was to test the psychometric properties of a MHM scale.
An embedded mixed-method design was utilized. The girls (age 12-19) were from three districts of Uttar Pradesh (Mirzapur, Jaunpur and Sonebhadra), India. A total of 2212 girls participated in the structured questionnaire. Trained interviewers collected the data on tablets using computer assisted personal interviewing. A total of 36 FGDs were conducted among 309 girls between. Trained moderators collected the data. Factor analysis and thematic analysis was conducted to analyze and triangulate the data.
More than 90% of the girls were from a marginalized caste. Overall, 28% of the girls practiced all six MHM behaviors adequately. The factor analysis found five separate constructs corresponding to menstrual health and hygiene management (MHHM) with a variation of 84% and eigenvalue of 1.7. Preparation of clean absorbent, storage of clean absorbent, frequency of changing and disposal loaded separately, corresponding to menstrual health. Privacy to change and hygiene loaded together (eigenvalue 0.91 each), corresponding to hygiene management. An underlying theme from the FGD was menstruation as a taboo and lack of privacy for changing the absorbent.
MHM is multi-dimensional construct comprising of behaviors which were time-bound by menstruation (menstrual health) and behaviors not time-bound by menstruation (hygiene management). Based on these results, the author recommends that MHHM is used as an acronym in the future and proposes a revised definition for MHHM.
过去十年突显了经期卫生管理（MHM）是一个公共卫生问题，因为它与健康、教育、社会正义和人权有关。然而，不同研究中对 MHM 的衡量尚未得到验证。本文的目的是测试 MHM 量表的心理测量特性。
采用嵌入式混合方法设计。女孩（年龄 12-19 岁）来自印度北方邦的三个区（米尔扎普尔、久纳尔和索尼巴德）。共有 2212 名女孩参加了结构问卷调查。经过培训的访谈员使用计算机辅助个人访谈在平板电脑上收集数据。共进行了 36 次 FGD，涉及 309 名女孩。经过培训的主持人收集数据。采用因子分析和主题分析对数据进行分析和三角剖分。
超过 90%的女孩来自边缘化种姓。总体而言，28%的女孩充分实践了所有六项 MHM 行为。因子分析发现五个独立的结构，对应于经期健康和卫生管理（MHHM），变异度为 84%，特征值为 1.7。准备干净的吸收剂、储存干净的吸收剂、更换和处理的频率分别加载，对应于经期健康。隐私换衣和卫生管理一起加载（特征值各为 0.91），对应于卫生管理。来自 FGD 的一个潜在主题是月经是一种禁忌，更换吸收剂缺乏隐私。
MHM 是一个多维度的结构，由受月经时间限制的行为（经期健康）和不受月经时间限制的行为（卫生管理）组成。基于这些结果，作者建议在未来使用 MHHM 作为缩写，并提出 MHHM 的修订定义。
