Menstrual hygiene knowledge, attitude and practice among in-school and out-of-school adolescent girls residing in cross river state, Nigeria

Globally, at least 500 million women and girls have poor knowledge on menstruation and lack adequate facilities for menstrual hygiene management (MHM). This study sought to determine the menstrual hygiene knowledge, attitude and practices of adolescent girls in Cross River State, Nigeria. Ethical approval was obtained from the Cross River State Health Research Committee (CRS/MH/HREC/021/Vol.V1/211). A community-based cross-sectional study design was used with a mixed method of data collection (Quantitative and Qualitative). Quantitative data was obtained from 422 adolescent girls aged 10-19 years who had attained menarche, and also gave their consent to participate in the study using a pre-tested adapted semi-structured questionnaire by UNICEF. Focus Group Discussion guide was used to obtain qualitative data from adolescent girls who participated in the FGD. Pearson Chi-square (ꭓ2) statistic was used to test association between variables. Majority 315 (74.6%) of the respondents had high knowledge of menstruation with most 174 (41.2%) of the respondents strongly agreeing that menstruation is something they just had to tolerate because they had no choice. Majority 360 (85.3%) of respondents indicated that they used disposable sanitary pads during menstruation. There was a statistically significant association between adolescent girls’ knowledge of menstruation and their school status, c2 (2, N = 422) = 11.45, p = 0.03. Government, Non-Governmental Organizations and the general public have to put more effort into ensuring that adolescent girls are well educated on menstruation and importance of good menstrual hygiene practice in schools but particularly for out-of-school girls.