Sarah Baird|Joan Hamory|Kiya Gezahegne|Kate Pincock|Tassew Woldehanna|Workneh Yadete|Nicola Jones
Improving Menstrual Health Literacy Through Life-Skills Programming in Rural Ethiopia
George Washington University|University of Oklahoma|Addis Ababa University|Open Data Institute|Addis Ababa University|Quest Integrity (New Zealand)|Open Data Institute
despite cultural biological importance limited knowledge menstruation cultural taboos many contexts mean menarche often brings fear stigma ethiopia context paper lack knowledge stigma around menstruation create challenges adolescent girls related menstrual hygiene management reproductive health broadly paper uses clusterrandomized controlled trial crct 97 communities kebeles randomly assigned treatment control assess impact gendertransformative lifeskills intervention act herethiopia awhe menstrual health literacy young adolescent girls boys 1014 two diverse regions ethiopia south gondar amhara east hararghe oromia evaluation employs longitudinal mixedmethods design baseline data collected late 2017early 2018 followup data collected late 2019early 2020 quantitative surveys undertaken 2492 young adolescents primary caregivers complemented qualitative interviews 291 adolescents caregivers well 96 key informants community district levels quantitative findings highlight large statistically significant improvements norms around menstruation knowledge menstruation biological function knowledge behavior related menstrual hygiene management important differences location gender qualitative findings unpack gender regional differences highlighting importance adapting programming local context possible connecting health gender initiatives analysis helps fill evidence gap works improve menstrual health literacy rural low middleincome contexts