Background. Menstrual hygiene management has not been sufficiently addressed in developing countries. In many Nepalese societies, menstrual practices are still surrounded by sociocultural restrictions and taboos resulting in adverse health outcomes for adolescent girls. The purpose of this study was to determine menstrual hygiene practice and sociodemographic as well as socioeconomic factors associated with good menstrual hygiene practice amongst adolescent school girls in Dang district, Nepal. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Dang district, Nepal, among 406 adolescent girls studying in grades 8, 9, and 10 between ages of 10 and 19 years from April to October 2019. Randomly 5 units were selected from a total of 10 local units. After 5 units had been decided, 10 schools consisting of 5 government and 5 private schools were selected through a disproportionate stratified random sampling technique. A further 406 students were then selected randomly from the 10 selected schools. Bivariate analysis was used primarily to assess the association between dependent and independent variables and final measure of association was odds ratio. Variables which were associated with bivariate analysis were entered into a multivariable logistic regression model to identify associated factors of menstrual hygiene practice. Results. The mean age and family size were 15.13 ± 1.19 and 5.58 ± 1.81, respectively. A total of 272 (67.0%) adolescents have good menstrual hygiene practice. Mothers and fathers with literature educational background (adjusted odds ratio = 0.52, confidence interval: 0.30–0.89 and AOR = 2.55, CI: 1.26–5.15, respectively), family size greater than or equal to 5 (AOR = 0.61, CI: 0.37–0.98), and living with relatives (AOR = 0.45, CI: 0.24–0.85) were significantly associated with good menstrual hygiene practice. Conclusions. Educational status of mother and father, family size, and living status were found to be independent associated factors of menstrual hygiene practice. In this context, this study demonstrates that administrators and policy makers should provide specific education regarding menstrual hygiene to both parents. Similarly local government needs to subsidize hygiene towels for school adolescents.

Background Increase in population plays a decisive role in providing universal access to reproductive health; however, there is very limited evidence about the reason of unmet need among marginalized and tribal communities such as Tharus. This study aimed to determine the factors affecting unmet need of family planning among married Tharu women of Dang, Nepal. Methods Community-based cross-sectional household survey among 650 married Tharu women of age group 15-49 in October 2015 to April 2016 was conducted in Dang district, Nepal. Randomly 3 wards were selected from each Tulsipur municipality, Hekuli Village Development Committee, and Pawan Nagar VDC. Results The mean age and parity were 30±7.31 and 2±0.69, respectively. Out of 650 women, 47% were using contraceptives. Westoff model was used for calculating total unmet need which is 49%, where unmet need for limiting and spacing was 27% and 22%, respectively. Hence after combining the current users and total unmet need, total demand for family planning was 96%. After adjustment, significant relation was observed between number of living sons ≥ 1 and unmet need of family planning (OR= 0.4; CI=0.2-0.8, p=0.01 ), similarly for women education; lower secondary level (OR=0.3; CI=0.1-0.6, p=0.01) and secondary (OR=0.1; CI=0.03-0.4, p=0.01); husband education, lower secondary level (OR=0.3; CI=0.1-0.6, p=0.01) and secondary (OR=0.4; CI= 0.2-0.9, p=0.04); and husband occupation, wage labor (OR=0.6; CI=0.4-0.99, p=0.05). In addition, having very good knowledge about method was also significantly associated (OR=0.49; CI= 0.2-0.97, p= 0.04). Conclusion Unmet need of family planning was significantly higher among less than secondary educated women. It is also predisposed by spouse education, partner's occupation, and number of living sons. This study concerns the need for all stake holders to focus on strategic behavior communication program regarding reproductive health.

BackgroundMalnutrition is a quiet emergency and one of the most widespread causes of morbidity and mortality among children and adolescent throughout the world; however there are very limited indications about the cause of malnutrition among adolescents. This study aimed to find out the prevalence and associated factors of malnutrition among school going adolescents of Dang district, Nepal.MethodsSchool based descriptive cross-sectional research design among 510 school adolescents studying in grade 9 and 10 between ages 14–17 years on April–October 2017 was conducted in Dang district Nepal. Among total 130 secondary schools, 10 schools were selected; one government and one private from each 5 electoral constituency using multistage probability random sampling.ResultsThe mean age and family size was 15.28 ± 0.77 and 5.25 ± 1.56 respectively. Among the total 25.7% of the adolescents are malnourished where 21.8% underweight, 3.1% overweight and 0.8% obese. After adjustment some of the variables such as religion (OR = 0.19; CI = 0.05–0.65, p = 0.008), family type (OR = 0.28; CI = 0.13–0.61, p = 0.001), school type (OR = 0.46; CI = 0.22–0.98, p = 0.044), earning status of family (OR = 4.52; CI = 1.44–14.16, p = 0.010), daily intake of green leafy vegetables (OR = 0.49; CI = 0.26–0.93, p = 0.031) and school sports (OR = 0.49; CI = 0.25–0.96, p = 0.040) were significantly associated with the underweight of adolescent. Similarly, variables such as gender (OR = 0.20; CI = 0.04–0.97, p = 0.046) and religion (OR = 9.75; CI = 2.24–42.39, p = 0.002) were significantly associated with the overweight/obesity of adolescent.ConclusionMalnutrition was significantly higher among adolescents living in joint family, family having no earning status. Male adolescents were found more likely to be overweight and obesity. Hence to tie up the good nutrition it is recommended that integrated nutritional intervention and health related services should also be focused on adolescents.

Background. Adolescent girls in developing countries do not have proper information, and proper information is covered up by sociocultural boundaries resulting in various morbidities. This study aimed to determine level of knowledge and its associated factors regarding menstrual hygiene amongst adolescent school girls in Dang district, Nepal. Methods. Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted between April and October 2019 among 406 adolescent girls studying in grades 8–10 between ages of 10–19 years in Dang district, Nepal. From a total of 10 local units, 5 were selected randomly. Out of the selected 5 units, 10 schools consisting of 5 government and 5 private schools were selected through disproportionate stratified random sampling. A further 406 students were then selected randomly from the 10 selected schools. Bivariate analysis was used primarily to assess the association between dependent and independent variables. Variables which were associated with bivariate analysis were entered into a multivariable logistic regression model to identify associated factors of menstrual hygiene practice. Results. The mean age and family size were 15.13 ± 1.19 and 5.58 ± 1.81, respectively. A total of 87.7% of adolescents had good knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene. Adolescents living in rural area (AOR = 0.27, CI: 0.12–0.61, p ≤ 0.001 ), private schools (AOR = 6.10, CI: 1.58–23.46, p ≤ 0.001 ), mothers who can read and write (AOR = 0.22, CI: 0.07–0.64, p ≤ 0.001 ), fathers who have up-to-grade-10 education (AOR = 5.15, CI: 1.84–14.39, p ≤ 0.001 ), and living only with mothers (AOR = 0.29, CI: 0.12–0.69, p ≤ 0.018 ) were significantly associated with level of knowledge of menstrual hygiene. Conclusions. Though the majority of respondents had a good level of knowledge regarding menstrual hygiene, there was a knowledge gap in specific areas. The level of knowledge was significantly poor among adolescents in rural areas and those living only with mothers. Thus, this study concerns the need for policy makers to focus on specific education regarding menstrual hygiene in rural areas including both parents.

Introduction: Sudden outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has affected the educational system worldwide, forced the medical colleges to close due to lock down, and disrupted the classroom face-to-face teaching process. As a result, medical colleges shifted to an online mode of teaching. The aim of this study is to find out the perception towards online classes during COVID-19 lockdown period among MBBS and BDS students at a medical college of Nepal. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out at Universal College of Medical Sciences and Teaching Hospital among first and second year Bachelor in Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor in dental surgery students from 1st June 2020 to 30th August 2020. Ethical approval was taken from Institutional Review Committee of Universal College of Medical Sciences and Teaching Hospital (IRC UCMS, Ref: UCMS/IRC/025/20). Convenient sampling method was used. Semi-structured questionnaire was used. Statistical Package for Social Sciences 22 was used for analysis and frequency and percentage was calculated. Results: One hundred fifty six (73.93%) students were enjoying online learning only to some extent, 135 (63.98%) felt online class not equally effective as face-to-face teaching. The students had disturbance during online classes as internet disturbance 168 (79.60%), and electricity problem 47 (22.3%). Similarly, many students 155 (73.50%) felt external disturbance, headache 26 (12.3%), and eye strain 26 (12.3%). Conclusions: Most of the students suffered from disturbances during online classes probably because of internet and electricity problem. When compulsory to conduct online classes, students felt that not more than three online classes per day should be conducted to avoid eye strain and headache.