Table 1.
Reported menstrual material use by country. Material use is categorized using both a single-response and a multi-response variable.
| Menstrual Material | Uganda | Kenya | Ethiopia | Ghana | Burkina Faso | Niger | Lagos, Nigeria | Kaduna, Nigeria | Kinshasa, DRC | Kongo Central, DRC | Indonesia | Rajasthan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (n = 2709) | (n = 4364) | (n = 4784) | (n = 2837) | (n = 2158) | (n = 1913) | (n = 1169) | (n = 1993) | (n = 2081) | (n = 1109) | (n = 8117) | (n = 5023) | |
| Grouped single-response material categories (% of respondents) | ||||||||||||
| Pads only | 52.2 | 77.5 | 34.0 | 82.7 | 13.6 | 9.7 | 74.7 | 27.4 | 73.3 | 20.8 | 87.7 | 39.1 |
| Cloth only | 30.6 | 9.0 | 38.4 | 8.6 | 58.0 | 59.8 | 4.0 | 55.7 | 3.6 | 29.5 | 7.3 | 49.0 |
| Cotton wool only | 1.6 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 13.2 | 12.1 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 6.8 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| Pads, cloth, cotton wool | 12.5 | 7.8 | 7.0 | 3.4 | 4.1 | 1.8 | 2.6 | 8.9 | 1.9 | 8.3 | 3.0 | 10.4 |
| Pads, cloth, cotton wool, other | 1.2 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 3.4 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 9.5 | 4.4 | 11.1 | 15.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Other 1 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 16.9 | 1.5 | 9.3 | 14.2 | 8.2 | 3.4 | 9.3 | 19.2 | 1.8 | 1.0 |
| Multi-response material categories (% of cases) | ||||||||||||
| Pads | 64.3 | 86.1 | 39.8 | 89.3 | 15.8 | 9.9 | 85.5 | 37.4 | 84.0 | 33.9 | 90.7 | 49.2 |
| Tampons | 0.2 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 1.9 | 5.6 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| Cloth | 41.9 | 14.1 | 47.3 | 12.0 | 63.1 | 63.6 | 6.5 | 67.6 | 7.4 | 40.4 | 10.3 | 59.4 |
| Cotton wool | 5.1 | 7.3 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 15.4 | 13.7 | 2.6 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 17.1 | 0.3 | 1.4 |
| Paper | 0.6 | 2.2 | 0.2 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 0.2 | 17.1 | 4.6 | 15.3 | 25.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| Foam | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 8.6 | 0.5 | 0.34 | 0.5 | 5.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| Natural materials | 0.3 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| None | 1.3 | 0.4 | 11.1 | 0.1 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 1.7 | 0.9 |
| Bucket | 0.2 | |||||||||||
| Other 2 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 4.9 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 3.6 | 0.1 | 1.7 | 4.5 | 2.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
1 Includes foam, natural materials, bucket, paper, and “other” from the original question, or any combination of those materials, and no materials. 2 Materials marked as “other” from the original question.