Menstrual health and school absenteeism among adolescent girls in Uganda (MENISCUS): a feasibility study

BMC Women's Health

Table 3 Factors associated with missing at least one day of school due to menstruation in the past month

	N	Number missing at least one day of school due to menstruation (%)^a	Adjusted odds ratio (95%CI)
Total	351	69 (19.8%)
Age			P-value for trend < 0.001
13–14	58	5 (8.6%)	1
15	102	15 (14.7%)	1.88 (0.64–5.56)
16	117	27 (23.1%)	3.04 (1.07–8.60)
17–18	71	22 (31.0%)	4.72 (1.56–14.25)
Ethnicity			P = 0.01
Mugandan	155	20 (12.9%)	1
Non-Mugandan	166	41 (24.7%)	2.26 (1.23–4.15)
Non-Ugandan	25	7 (28.0%)	2.97 (1.00–8.75)
Times changed absorbent per 24 h during last period^b			P = 0.03
< =3 times	277	50 (18.1%)	1
> =4 times^c	62	18 (29.0%)	2.08 (1.06–4.10)
Use disposable pads for each day of period²			P = 0.22
No	79	21 (26.6%)	1
Yes	262	48 (18.3%)	0.68 (0.36–1.26)
Amount of blood lost on heaviest day of period²
Little	40	3 (7.5%)	0.36 (0.10–1.28)
Average	213	34 (16.0%)	1
Very much	89	30 (33.7%)	2.45 (1.34–4.48)
Symptoms during last period
Headache^b			P = 0.01
No	206	31 (15.1%)	1
Yes	132	35 (26.5%)	2.15 (1.20–3.86)
Stomach pain ^b			P = 0.10
No	83	10 (12.1%)	1
Yes	260	58 (22.3%)	1.89 (0.89–4.04)
Back pain^b			P = 0.06
No	174	24 (13.8%)	1
Yes	163	43 (26.4%)	1.75 (0.97–3.14)

^aExcluding 3 girls with missing outcome data
^bAdjusted for age, ethnicity and school
^cThe recommended number of changes would be 5 (one every 4 h during the day, plus one at night) but as only 6% of girls changed this frequently we used a cutoff of 4 or more changes in 24 h

ISSN: 1472-6874