The Water Institute, Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding and Department of Government, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Jun 4;15(6):e0232935. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232935. eCollection 2020.
The lack of established measurement tools in the study of menstrual health and hygiene has been a significant limitation of quantitative studies to date. However, there has been limited exploration of existing measurement to identify avenues for improvement.
We undertook two linked systematic reviews of (1) trials of menstrual health interventions and their nested studies in low- and middle-income countries, (2) studies developing or validating measures of menstrual experiences from any location. Systematic searching was undertaken in 12 databases, together with handsearching. We iteratively grouped and audited concepts measured across included studies and extracted and compared measures of each concept.
A total of 23 trials, 9 nested studies and 22 measure development studies were included. Trials measured a range of outcomes including menstrual knowledge, attitudes, and practices, school absenteeism, and health. Most measure validation studies focused on assessing attitudes towards menstruation, while a group of five studies assessed the accuracy of women's recall of their menstrual characteristics such as timing and cycle length. Measures of menstrual knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and restrictions were inconsistent and frequently overlapped. No two studies measured the same menstrual or hygiene practices, with 44 different practices assessed. This audit provides a summary of current measures and extant efforts to pilot or test their performance.
Inconsistencies in both the definition and operationalisation of concepts measured in menstrual health and hygiene research should be addressed. To improve measurement, authors should clearly define the constructs they aim to measure and outline how these were operationalised for measurement. Results of this audit indicate the need for the development and validation of new measures, and the evaluation of the performance of existing measures across contexts. In particular, the definition and measurement of menstrual practices, knowledge, attitudes, norms and restrictions should be addressed.
CRD42018089884.
在月经健康和卫生研究中，缺乏既定的测量工具一直是迄今为止定量研究的一个重大限制。然而，对于现有测量方法的探索有限，无法确定改进的方向。
我们对（1）中低收入国家的月经健康干预措施及其嵌套研究，以及（2）在任何地点开发或验证月经体验测量方法的研究进行了两项相关的系统评价。在 12 个数据库中进行了系统搜索，并进行了手工搜索。我们对纳入研究中测量的概念进行了迭代分组和审核，并提取和比较了每个概念的测量方法。
共纳入 23 项试验、9 项嵌套研究和 22 项测量方法开发研究。试验测量了一系列结果，包括月经知识、态度和实践、缺课率以及健康状况。大多数测量验证研究侧重于评估对月经的态度，而一组五项研究评估了女性对自己的月经特征（如时间和周期长度）的回忆准确性。月经知识、态度、信仰和限制的测量方法不一致，经常重叠。没有两项研究测量相同的月经或卫生习惯，评估了 44 种不同的习惯。这次审计总结了目前的测量方法和现有努力，以试点或测试其性能。
月经健康和卫生研究中测量的概念在定义和操作化方面存在不一致，应该得到解决。为了改进测量，作者应明确界定他们旨在测量的结构，并概述如何对其进行操作化以进行测量。这次审计的结果表明，需要开发和验证新的测量方法，并评估现有测量方法在不同环境下的性能。特别是，应解决月经实践、知识、态度、规范和限制的定义和测量问题。
CRD42018089884。
