Development and Validation of a Menstruation-Related Activity Restriction Questionnaire among Adolescent Girls in Urban Resettlement Colonies of Delhi.

INTRODUCTION

Menstruation, a physiological phenomenon, till date is associated with myths, taboos, and malpractices. These interfere with the emotional, physical, and mental health of adolescent girls. This study attempts to draft a validated questionnaire to measure menstruation-related activity restriction.

OBJECTIVE

The objective was to study activities restricted during menstruation among adolescent girls residing in urban resettlement colonies of Delhi and to develop and validate a questionnaire for menstruation-related activity restriction.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescent girls residing in urban resettlement colonies of Delhi during 2019. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 1100 girls across four districts of Delhi. A 15-item questionnaire was developed by an expert committee and validated with principal component analysis (PCA).

RESULTS

In total, 1100 adolescent girls were included in the study whose mean age was 15.8 (±2.1) years. School/college/work was missed due to menstruation in 60% of the adolescent girls, 66% were not comfortable during menstruation, and 92% were restricted from entering religious places. In exploratory factor analysis using PCA, 6 principal components were identified which had eigenvalues more than 1.

CONCLUSION

Religious restrictions during menstruation (94%) were highly prevalent among adolescent girls, followed by restriction of routine activity (69%) and work/academically related activity (60%). Construct validity has identified a six-factor structure for the menstruation-related activity restriction questionnaire. This was identified as a valid and internally consistent tool to assess activities restricted during menstruation among Indian adolescent girls.