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© 2024 Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ . Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Background

Menstrual health is essential for gender equity and the well-being of women and girls. Qualitative research has described the burden of poor menstrual health on health and education; however, these impacts have not been quantified, curtailing investment. The Adolescent Menstrual Experiences and Health Cohort (AMEHC) Study aims to describe menstrual health and its trajectories across adolescence, and quantify the relationships between menstrual health and girls’ health and education in Khulna, Bangladesh.

Methods and analysis

AMEHC is a prospective longitudinal cohort of 2016 adolescent girls recruited at the commencement of class 6 (secondary school, mean age=12) across 101 schools selected through a proportional random sampling approach. Each year, the cohort will be asked to complete a survey capturing (1) girls’ menstrual health and experiences, (2) support for menstrual health, and (3) health and education outcomes. Survey questions were refined through qualitative research, cognitive interviews and pilot survey in the year preceding the cohort. Girls’ guardians will be surveyed at baseline and wave 2 to capture their perspectives and household demographics. Annual assessments will capture schools’ water, sanitation and hygiene, and support for menstruation and collect data on participants’ education, including school attendance and performance (in maths, literacy). Cohort enrolment and baseline survey commenced in February 2023. Follow-up waves are scheduled for 2024, 2025 and 2026, with plans for extension. A nested subcohort will follow 406 post-menarche girls at 2-month intervals throughout 2023 (May, August, October) to describe changes across menstrual periods. This protocol outlines a priori hypotheses regarding the impacts of menstrual health to be tested through the cohort.

Ethics and dissemination

AMEHC has ethical approval from the Alfred Hospital Ethics Committee (369/22) and BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health Institutional Review Board (IRB-06 July 22-024). Study materials and outputs will be available open access through peer-reviewed publication and study web pages.

Details

Title
Protocol for the Adolescent Menstrual Experiences and Health Cohort (AMEHC) Study in Khulna, Bangladesh: A Prospective cohort to quantify the influence of menstrual health on adolescent girls’ health and education outcomes.
Author
Hennegan, Julie 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hasan, Md Tanvir 2 ; Jabbar, Abdul 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Tasfiyah Jalil 2 ; Kennedy, Elissa 3 ; Hunter, Erin 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Kaiser, Adrita 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Akter, Sabina 2 ; Zaman, Afreen 2 ; Rahman, Mahfuj-ur 5 ; Dunstan, Laura 6   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Head, Alexandra 7   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Scott, Nick 8 ; Weiss, Helen Anne 9   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Thin Mar Win 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Melendez-Torres, G J 11 ; Than, Kyu Kyu 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hughes, Chad L 12 ; Grover, Sonia 13 ; Mahadi Hasan 5 ; Rashid, Sabina Faiz 2 ; Azzopardi, Peter 14 

 Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia 
 BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh 
 Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; School of Population Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia; Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 
 Department of Public Health Sciences, Clemson University College of Behavioral Social and Health Sciences, Clemson, South Carolina, USA; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia 
 WaterAid Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh 
 Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melboune, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 
 Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 
 Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia 
 MRC International Statistics and Epidemiology Group, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK 
10  Myanmar Country Program, Burnet Institute, Yangon, Myanmar 
11  Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK 
12  Disease Elimination Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 
13  Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 
14  Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; Telethon Kids Institute, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 
First page
e079451
Section
Global health
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group LTD
e-ISSN
20446055
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3035295957
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ . Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.