Department of Geography, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
PeerJ. 2023 Mar 20;11:e15026. doi: 10.7717/peerj.15026. eCollection 2023.
Menstrual hygiene is essential for women to live with dignity. However, a large proportion of Indian women still suffer from unhygienic menstrual practices leading to reproductive tract infections. To understand the socioeconomic and bio-demographic determinants of menstrual hygiene practices, various national or local level studies have been conducted in India and around the world, however, no previous study has tried to understand the spatial heterogeneity across Indian districts in the use of hygienic materials among young urban women.
This study used data from 54,561 urban women aged 15-24 from the National Family Health Survey-5. Global Moran's I was applied to assess the degree of spatial autocorrelation and cluster and outlier analyses to locate hot-spots and clod-spots in the exclusive use of hygienic materials across the districts. Ordinary least square, spatial lag, and error models were used to identify determinants of exclusive use of hygienic materials.
Approximately 66.8% of urban women exclusively use of hygienic materials which varied across districts. Global Moran's I of 0.46 indicated positive spatial autocorrelation in the outcome. Cluster and outlier analysis revealed cold-spots in central Indian districts and hotspots in south Indian districts. Results of spatial error model identified women's years of schooling, marital status, social group, and household wealth were major determinants of the exclusive use of hygienic materials among urban women across Indian districts.
Substantial spatial heterogeneity in the outcome among urban women in India suggests the need to design targeted and context-specific behavioural interventions and programs for women in urban India.
经期卫生对于女性有尊严地生活至关重要。然而，印度仍有很大一部分女性的经期卫生习惯不卫生，导致生殖道感染。为了了解经期卫生实践的社会经济和生物人口学决定因素，印度和世界各地进行了各种国家或地方层面的研究，但以前没有研究试图了解印度各地区年轻城市女性使用卫生材料的空间异质性。
本研究使用了来自全国家庭健康调查-5 的 54561 名年龄在 15-24 岁的城市女性的数据。全局 Moran's I 用于评估空间自相关程度，聚类和异常值分析用于定位各地区卫生材料专用的热点和冷点。普通最小二乘法、空间滞后和误差模型用于确定卫生材料专用的决定因素。
约 66.8%的城市女性专门使用卫生材料，各地区之间存在差异。结果的全局 Moran's I 为 0.46，表明存在正空间自相关。聚类和异常值分析显示，印度中部地区为冷点，印度南部地区为热点。空间误差模型的结果表明，女性的受教育年限、婚姻状况、社会群体和家庭财富是影响印度各地区城市女性专用卫生材料的主要决定因素。
印度城市女性在该结果中存在大量空间异质性，这表明需要为印度城市的女性设计有针对性和具体背景的行为干预措施和项目。
