Effect of Menstrual Hygiene Module on awareness,perception,and practice of menstrual hygiene among visually challenged females in selected residential schools of Uttarakhand: A quasi-experimental study

Abstract

Vision disability ranks among the top 10 disabilities in people under 18 and older. Their needs are often neglected, placing them at potential risk for a wide array of problems. The right to dignified menstrual hygiene is often violated. This study aimed to assess the effect of the Menstrual Hygiene Module (MHM) on the awareness, perception, and practice of menstrual hygiene among visually challenged females in selected residential schools of Uttarakhand. A two-group pretest and posttest study was conducted among 75 visually challenged females in both the experimental and control groups, who experienced menstruation and had not attained menopause through a total enumerative sampling technique. Participants were assessed for awareness, perception, and practices for menstrual hygiene using a self-structured questionnaire followed by administration of the MHM to participants in the experimental group. The module comprised health teaching, tactile diagrams on the female reproductive system taken from As We Grow Up: A Tactile Book on Menstrual Hygiene Management, published by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (UN organization), prototypes of menstrual products, and three-dimensional (3D) models on the female reproductive system. The intervention was followed by a posttest. The mean age of participants in the experimental and control groups was found to be 14.05 ± 2.27 and 14.48 ± 2.39 years, respectively. In the experimental group, the mean awareness score increased from 7.41 ± 1.11 to 7.92 ± 1.07 (paired t-value: 6.40), whereas the perception score increased from 22.168 ± 2.35 to 32.088 ± 2.75 (paired t-value: 33.33), tested at the .05 level of significance. The majority of the practices remain unchanged even after the intervention such as a way of recognizing the onset of menstruation in both the groups. The study concluded that there is a great need for empowering visually challenged females to achieve dignified menstrual hygiene. The module developed as part of the study can be further used to dispel information on menstrual hygiene among visually challenged females in different areas.