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Girls’ attendance at school after a menstrual hygiene intervention in northern Ethiopia
Author(s) -
Belay Shewaye,
Kuhlmann Anne K. Sebert,
Wall L. Lewis
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1002/ijgo.13127
Subject(s) - attendance , menarche , intervention (counseling) , psychological intervention , hygiene , medicine , demography , menstruation , family medicine , psychology , nursing , pathology , endocrinology , sociology , economics , economic growth
Abstract Objective To evaluate the effect on school attendance of a menstrual hygiene intervention that distributes educational booklets to school children and menstrual hygiene kits to schoolgirls in northern Ethiopia. Methods Attendance was tracked for 8839 students in grades 7–12 during the 2015–2016 academic year when the intervention was implemented. Negative binomial regression was used to test whether student sex predicted post‐intervention school absences when controlling for grade‐level and pre‐intervention absences. Similar attendance data were analyzed for 3569 students in grades 7, 9, and 11 for the 2014–2015 academic year as a historical comparison. Results Over 12 211 educational booklets were distributed to students and 5991 menstrual hygiene kits were distributed to schoolgirls. After the intervention, girls had 24% fewer school absences than boys. Sex was not a predictor of absences during a similar time‐period in the prior school year. Conclusion This is one of the first large studies to show a positive relationship between a menstrual hygiene intervention and girls’ school attendance. These positive results suggest such interventions should be expanded to other schools in northern Ethiopia. Future research should explore whether similar interventions can also decrease the rate at which girls drop out of school around menarche.