Abstract

There is a scarcity of baseline research on menstruation and menstrual hygiene that could guide health communication intervention campaigns. Research indicates that menstrual hygiene affects the health and wellbeing, educational opportunities, professional life choices, access to opportunities and other rights and privileges of women and girls. The research questions in this study surveyed the level of knowledge, cognitive and behavioral involvement of safe and correct menstrual practices among women and men in Ahmedabad, India. A probability sample of 475 individuals was selected using multi-stage clustered sampling technique. Survey technique was used collect data. SPSS was used for data analysis. It was found that knowledge and cognitive involvement about menstrual practices was high whereas, behavioral involvement in menstrual practices was low. All hypothesized relationships between cognitive and behavioral involvement in menstrual practices and knowledge of menstrual practices for men and women were statistically significant. 

Key Words: Knowledge, Cognitive Involvement, Behavioral Involvement, Menstruation, Media Campaigns

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*Arpan Yagnik is Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, Erie, USA

**Srinivas Melkote, Ph.D., is Professor, School of Media and Communication, Department of Telecommunications, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 8, No. 2, October 2016, 48 – 66