Factors influencing period poverty among female adolescent students in public secondary schools in EDE North, Osun State

Abstract

Background: Period poverty, which includes a lack of access to menstrual products, can lead to poor menstrual hygiene by wearing pads or tampons for too long to manage what they have, absorbing menstrual blood with newspapers or dirty clothes, and not washing or washing the vagina with dirty water these unhealthy practices can lead to things like fungal infection, bacterial infection, yeast infection and Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs). Period poverty is a serious issue in Nigeria but is overlooked and understudied. The study assessed the level of period poverty among the respondents and the factors influencing period poverty. Methods: This study adopted a descriptive design to describe the factors associated with period poverty among public secondary school students in Ede, Osun state. A multistage sampling technique was used for the study. Descriptive and bivariate statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data, and the level of significance was α0.05. Results: The mean age was 14.2 ± 3.8 years. 29.8% were from JSS1, 25.3% were from JSS2, 25.0% were from SSS1, and 19.9% were from SSS2. Results revealed that the majority 79.5% experienced intense period poverty, 14.1% were rated average, and 6.4% experienced less intense period poverty. 72.4% had personal factors that can influence period poverty, while 27.6% had personal factors that might not influence period poverty. 70.6% gave responses that show the school having conditions that can contribute to period poverty while 29.4% gave responses that show the school having conditions that would not contribute to period poverty. 76.6% had background factors that could influence Period Poverty, while 23.4% had background factors that might not influence period poverty. Conclusion: Curbing these factors that influence (increase) the rate of period poverty would reduce its effects.