Exploring the temporal shift in menstrual hygiene practices among young women across India: a micro and macro perspectives
S. K. Singh, Bharti Singh

TL;DR
This study examines how menstrual hygiene practices among young Indian women improved from 2016 to 2021, highlighting the role of awareness, education, and socio-economic factors.
Contribution
The study uniquely combines micro and macro perspectives to analyze spatial and temporal shifts in menstrual hygiene practices using NFHS data.
Findings
Menstrual hygiene practices increased by 20% points between 2016 and 2021, especially in marginalized groups.
Geospatial attributes, awareness, education, and economic factors significantly influence menstrual hygiene practices.
Media exposure and women's education are the top contributors to improved menstrual hygiene practices.
Abstract
Lack of menstrual hygiene practices (MHP) is one of the primary causes of reproductive morbidities among young women. The recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS) showed a significant increase in the use of hygienic menstrual methods in India. This paper aims to investigate the spatial and temporal changes in the prevalence of hygienic menstrual practices from 2016 to 2021, considering micro and macro perspectives. The study is based on women aged 15–24. The Datasets used in this study are from two recent rounds of the National Family Health Survey, NFHS-4 and NFHS-5. Descriptive, bivariate, multilevel, spatial, and Fairlie decomposition methods have been used to analyze spatial and temporal changes in MHP. The study illustrates that the prevalence of MHP has increased by 20% points over the past five years, with a significant rise in the use of sanitary napkins, even among…
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
Click any figure to enlarge with its caption.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsMenstrual Health and Disorders · Reproductive Health and Contraception
