Menstrual Health of high school students of Kermanshah, 2010‎

Introduction: Menstruation occurs only in women and is a period of fertility cycle in women. Good healthy behavior has definite effect on preventing infection and supplying special physical and psychological needs is girls during this period. This study was aimed to determine menstrual health of high school students of Kermanshah, 2010.

Material and Method: Present descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 535 girl students in Kermanshah, 2010. The data gathering instrument was a three-sectioned questionnaire including 33 closed questions, which its validity and reliability were confirmed by content validity and split-halves method, respectively. The knowledge was categorized as weak group (score≤20) and good group (score ≥21) and the performance was categorized as weak( 1-13), intermediate(14-20) and good(21-27) groups. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS/v16 software and descriptive-analytical tests.

Results: Of total students, 53.7% had good knowledge but 65.2% had intermediate performance. The knowledge was associated significantly with the year of students education, educational level of mothers ,fathers job, educational level of fathers, economical status, educational fieldand the residence(p<0.001).The association between knowledge and performance was significant (p<0.001). The rate of good knowledge and good
performance were higher in urban students (p<0.001).

Discussion: Although the rate of good knowledge was higher than good performance, it is unsatisfactory for bringing menstrual hygiene. Thus, the girl students should be educated
about the importance of menstruation and its health especially in rural regions.