Knowledge of menstrual disorders and health seeking behaviour among female undergraduate students of University of Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Menstrual disorders are physical or emotional problems that affect the normal menstrual cycle and bring about pain, unusually heavy or light bleeding and missed periods. They are one of the most occurring gynaecologic issues that affect women of child bearing age with a global prevalence of 30-70% and one of the frequent reasons women consult physicians worldwide.

Objectives: This study investigated the knowledge, prevalence of menstrual disorders, pattern of health seeking behaviours, association between age at menarche and prevalence of menstrual disorder,  association between knowledge and health seeking behaviour among the female undergraduate  students.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was employed to randomly select 381 respondents through  a three-stage sampling technique. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used for data  collection. Data collected were analysed using IBM SPSS version 20; statistical tests were conducted using  Chi-square and fischer exact test.

Results: The mean age of the respondents was 20.45±2.66 and the mean age at menarche was 12.90±1.84. Majority of the respondents (79.3%) had good knowledge of menstrual disorders. The overall prevalence of menstrual disorders among the respondents was 90.4%. and only 28.3% had sought  help for menstrual disorders. Inferential analysis showed a statistically significant association  between knowledge and health seeking behaviour of menstrual disorders (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Menstrual disorders are highly prevalent among young females of child bearing age in our environment; the role of mass media (Internet) and interpersonal relationships in health education is  very acknowledgeable and should be harnessed to improve young females’ knowledge of positive health  seeking behaviours with regard to menstrual disorders.