Table 1.
Characteristics of included Indian studies on Menstrual Hygiene Management published between 2000 and 2015
| Variable | Values | Number (%) N=138 |
|---|---|---|
| Type of material | Article | 127 (92.0) |
| Report | 9 (6.5) | |
| Thesis | 2 (1.5) | |
| Year of publication | 2000 | 1 (0.7) |
| 2001–2004 | 7 (5.1) | |
| 2005–2009 | 24 (17.4) | |
| 2010–2014 | 90 (65.2) | |
| 2015 | 16 (11.6) | |
| Study design | Survey | 107 (77.5) |
| Before/after design* | 19 (13.8) | |
| Mixed methods | 12 (8.7) | |
| Study population | Completely adolescent girls | 118 (85.5) |
| Partly adolescent girls | 20 (14.5) | |
| Setting | Rural | 50 (36.2) |
| Urban | 48 (34.8) | |
| Urban and rural | 30 (21.7) | |
| Slum | 10 (7.3) | |
| Location of recruitment | School | 82 (59.4) |
| Community | 45 (32.6) | |
| Other† | 11 (8.0) | |
| Method of data collection | Self-administered | 69 (50.0) |
| Interview by study staff | 68 (49.3) | |
| Not applicable | 1‡ (0.7) | |
| Time period of study§ | Before 2000 | 5 (3.6) |
| 2000–2004 | 17 (12.3) | |
| 2005–2009 | 35 (25.4) | |
| 2010–2014 | 81 (58.7) | |
| Region¶ | North | 27 (19.7) |
| Central | 11 (8.0) | |
| East | 19 (13.9) | |
| West | 32 (23.4) | |
| South | 48 (35.0) | |
| Median sample size (range) | 322 (30–5000) |
*Two studies with a before/after design had a mixed design (quantitative and qualitative components).
†Clinic 4, Hostel 2, Vocational training centre 2, School and community 2, not reported 1.
‡In this study, girls were given the opportunity to ask questions on MHM, and the contents of questions were analysed.
§Estimated for 59 studies where this was not reported by using the median between last study year and publication year (2 years) for studies where the time of the study was reported (79 studies).
¶North: New Delhi, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand; Central: Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh; East: Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Meghalaya; West: Gujarat, Maharashtra; South: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Telangana. One study had a national sample (Anand 2015) and was not included here.15
MHM, Menstrual Hygiene Management.