Menstrual hygiene and school absenteeism among Gambian schools: Preparatory phase for a RCT.

青春期女孩月经卫生管理不善与旷课和其他健康后果有关。在全球范围内，世界各地的女孩都制定了自己的应对月经的个人策略。不同的国家、个人的个人偏好、可用的资源、当地的传统和文化信仰以及知识或教育有很大的不同。有些月经习惯与不同的健康结局有关(细菌性阴道病和泌尿生殖道感染)(9)。在全球范围内，月经及其管理也具有重要的社会和文化影响，进而可能影响女孩的生活。在这一领域开展工作的国际组织和研究机构，如水援助组织、水研究委员会和国际计划组织，都对缺课问题特别感兴趣。这些组织报告说，根据他们的经验，女孩在月经期间缺课可能有生理和心理两方面的原因。我们在2013年进行的一项文献回顾发现，有很好的证据表明，教育干预可以改善月经卫生习惯，减少社会限制，但没有定量证据表明，月经知识和管理方法的改善可以减少旷课和泌尿生殖系统感染。这项工作将有助于增加对潜在可扩展干预措施的有效性的了解，以改善月经卫生管理、冈比亚女学生的就学情况和减少泌尿生殖道感染。

Poor menstrual hygiene management among adolescent girls have been associated with school absenteeism and other health outcomes. Globally girls around the world have developed their own personal strategies to cope with menstruation. These vary greatly from country to country, individual's personal preferences, available resources, local traditions and cultural beliefs and knowledge or education. Some of the menstrual practices have been associated with different health outcomes (Bacterial vaginosis and urogenital infections)(9). Across the globe menstruation and its management also have important social and cultural implications which may in turn impact girl's lives. Absence from school, has been of particular interest to International organisations and research bodies working in this area such a WaterAid, the Water Research Commission and Plan International. These organizations report that in their experience girls' absence from school during menstruation can have both physical and psychological causes. A literature review we conducted in 2013 found there was good evidence that educational interventions can improve menstrual hygiene practices and reduce social restrictions but there was no quantitative evidence that improvements in menstrual knowledge and management methods reduce school absenteeism and urogenital infections. This work will contribute to increase the knowledge on the effectiveness of potentially scalable interventions to improve menstrual hygiene management, school attendance of Gambian schoolgirls and reduce urogenital infections.