Menstrual Hygiene Preparedness Among Schools in India: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of System-and Policy-Level Actions

Shantanu Sharma, Devika Mehra, Nele Brusselaers and Sunil Mehra
Additional contact information
Shantanu Sharma: Researcher, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, 22100 Lund, Sweden
Devika Mehra: Public Health Consultant, Medeon Science Park, 21432 Malmö, Sweden
Nele Brusselaers: Centre for Translational Microbiome Research, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell biology, Karolinska Institute, SciLifeLab, 17177 Stockholm (Solna), Sweden
Sunil Mehra: MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child, Delhi 110048, India

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-30

Abstract: With increasing girls’ enrolment in schools, school preparedness to ensure a menstrual friendly environment is crucial. The study aimed to conduct a systematic review regarding the existing evidence on menstrual hygiene management (MHM) across schools in India. It further aimed to highlight the actions that have been taken by the government to improve the MHM situation in India. We conducted the systematic literature search using PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science for searching the peer-reviewed articles and Google Scholar for anecdotal reports published from inception until 30 October 2019. Of 1125 publications retrieved through the search, 183 papers were included in this review, using a priori created data-extraction form. Meta-analysis was used to estimate the pooled prevalence (PP) of MHM practices in schools. Less than half of the girls were aware of menstruation before menarche (PP 0.45, 0.39 to 0.51, I 2 = 100.0%, n = 122). Teachers were a less common source of information about menstruation to girls (PP 0.07, 0.05 to 0.08, I 2 = 100.0%, n = 86). Separate toilets for girls were present in around half of the schools (PP 0.56, 0.42 to 0.75, I 2 100.0%, n = 11). MHM in schools should be strengthened with convergence between various departments for explicit implementation of guidelines.

Keywords: Adolescent; Education; Health; Hygiene; Sanitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/2/647/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/2/647/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:2:p:647-:d:310647

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().