A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOL ADOLESCENT GIRLS ON MENSTRUAL HYGIENE

Introduction: Adolescent refers to individuals between the ages of 10-19 years. Secondary education holds pivotal position in education system of every country, for it is terminal stage for most of students. Menstruation is the unique to the female’s part of the female reproductive cycle.

Materials and Methods: The descriptive comparative study was carried out with adolescent girls studying in both public and private schools of Kathmandu valley. A total of 100 girls participated in the survey, and out of them 21 participated in the focus group discussion and 5 in the in- depth interview. Informed verbal consent with the respective head of school, respective parents and the respondents were taken before data collection.

Results: The age of the respondents ranges from 11 to 18 years, with mean age of menarche being 12.37 years in both school adolescent girls. The study reveals that the ANOVA test of difference between the knowledge of private sector’s students and public sector’s students. It is seen that calculated F statistics value of 1.080 is higher than table value of 0.407 at 5% level of significance. Results of our ANOVA analysis support our hypothesis that there is significant difference between knowledge of private sector’s students and public sector’s students.

Conclusion: Private schools children are more knowledgeable and maintain hygiene as compere to public school.