Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences, Louisville, KY, USA.
Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences, University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences, Louisville, KY, USA.
Afr J Reprod Health. 2024 Feb 28;28(1):123-156. doi: 10.29063/ajrh2024/v28i1.12.
A systematic literature review was conducted to examine all recent academic, peer-reviewed studies of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) across adolescent girls in Anglophone West Africa. The objective was to assess the status of the scholarship surrounding the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of MHM across English-speaking West African countries and identify gaps in the literature for further research. The authors searched the epidemiological literatures indexed in PubMed and cross-referenced bibliographies for studies published between 2010-2022. Of 59 abstracts and articles screened, 35 met the final inclusion criteria. Despite differences in study design, setting, and data sources, the study results concurred on an average age of menarche between 12-15 years old among adolescent girls. The knowledge of MHM came from multiple sources, most commonly mothers, female siblings, and teachers and higher knowledge was associated with age, source, wealth, religion, and education level. Less than half of the adolescent girls knew about menstruation before menarche. Many studies showed that girls were shocked by their first period and fearful of staining. Menstruation was associated with dysmenorrhea, fear/embarrassment, and missing school. The existing studies suggest that more implementation and evaluation of menstrual hygiene management materials, education, and facilities are needed to address the educational, physical, and social disparities that exist among girls in West African countries.
一项系统文献回顾考察了所有关于青春期少女经期卫生管理（MHM）的近期英文学术、同行评议研究。目的是评估围绕英语西非国家少女 MHM 的知识、态度和实践的学术研究现状，并确定文献中的空白领域，以便进一步研究。作者在 PubMed 中检索了流行病学文献，并交叉参考了 2010 年至 2022 年期间发表的研究的参考文献。在筛选的 59 篇摘要和文章中，有 35 篇符合最终纳入标准。尽管研究设计、设置和数据源存在差异，但研究结果一致认为青春期少女的平均初潮年龄在 12-15 岁之间。MHM 的知识来自多个来源，最常见的是母亲、女性兄弟姐妹和教师，较高的知识水平与年龄、来源、财富、宗教和教育程度有关。不到一半的少女在初潮前了解月经。许多研究表明，女孩对第一次月经感到震惊和害怕弄脏。月经与痛经、恐惧/尴尬和缺课有关。现有研究表明，需要更多地实施和评估经期卫生管理材料、教育和设施，以解决西非国家少女中存在的教育、身体和社会差距。
