Abstract

This study was designed to ascertain the knowledge, attitude and practice of menstrual hygiene among public secondary school students in Ogbomoso south local government area of Oyo State. One (1) research questions and three (3) null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive research design of survey type was adopted. Multistage sampling technique was used to select one thousand and twenty (1020) junior/senior secondary school students for the study. Stage 1; 30% of the school using proportional sampling technique 18 schools Stage 2; Purposive to select J.S.S.1 and 2 and S.S 1 and 2 because S.S 3 and J.S.S 3 were writing exams. Stage 3; Simple random sampling to pick an arm in all the selected classes. Stage 4; Systematic random sampling to pick 25 female students in each class. The research instruments that was used for this study was a Standardized questionnaire. The reliability coefficient of the instrument yielded 0.77 using Cronbach Alpha formula. Frequency count, percentage and bar chart was used to analyze demographic Information. While inferential statistics, Pearson product moment correlation, was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed among others that there is no significant relationship between knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene among secondary school students in Ogbomoso South Local Government area. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that health educator and other health practitioners to have a shift in paradigm from theoretical teaching to skill based health education in order to improve their services to clients especially the adolescents. Also, efforts should be made in the area of interdisciplinary collaboration to ensure that dialogue and intervention on adolescent reproductive health (menstrual hygiene) integrate these contextual factors into social welfare practice.

Key Words: knowledge, Attitude, Practice, Menstrual Hygiene