Knowledge, Practices, and Self-Reported Symptoms of Menstrual Irregularities among Female University Students in Sri Lanka: An Online Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Menstrual irregularities are important in terms of female reproductive health. However, it is poorly addressed in developing countries like Sri Lanka especially in school level and above. The present descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to assess knowledge, practices, and selfreported symptoms of menstrual irregularities among the female university students (n=280) in Sri Lanka. Data collection was performed during January 2021 to December 2021. The analysis revealed that the overall knowledge regarding menstrual irregularities among female university students was not satisfactory (less than 50%) and only 33.5% (n=73) of students were with satisfactory knowledge level. Overall practices regarding menstrual irregularities were also not satisfactory with only 37.6% (n=82) reporting with good practices level. The results also revealed that there is no correlation between knowledge on menstrual irregularities and attitudes towards menstrual irregularities. The knowledge on menstrual irregularities had a significant association with faculty of study, type of university and A/L stream (p<0.05). Socio-demographic factors such as age, religion and residence were not statistically significant. The practices on menstrual irregularities had a significant association with age and type of university (p<0.05). Prevalence of menorrhagia and amenorrhea are increasing but students were not aware of these menstrual irregularities although the signs and symptoms were present in many of them. Since more than half of the study population was not having good knowledge and attitudes towards menstrual irregularities, the present study strongly suggests the requirement of health education and health promotion programmes to improve the knowledge and attitudes.