Emerging patterns of tampon use in the adolescent female: the impact of toxic shock syndrome.

From November 1980 through January 1981, we queried 714 post menarchal adolescents (ages 12 to 19) about menstrual product use at menarche (T1), during summer 1980 (T2), at last menstrual period (T3), and about intended product for next menstrual period (T4). The percentage of adolescents reporting use of tampons at each point in time were: T1, 3.1 per cent; T2, 24.1 per cent; T3 (following the media coverage of toxic shock syndrome [TSS]), 19.3 per cent; and T4, 19.5 per cent. Prior to TSS coverage there was a shift toward tampon use in 141 of the 672 subjects who used napkins (21 per cent) and no increase in napkin use. Following media coverage, shifts toward tampon use among napkin users decreased to 2.3 per cent while 32.9 per cent of the 168 summer tampon users (T2) shifted to the use of napkins; reasons for the shift were significantly associated with TSS (p less than .001). Ethnicity (White) was highly associated with reported tampon use. Following TSS coverage, adolescents in all ethnic groups decreased their tampon use at the same rate.