Research Article Relationship between Female University Students’ Knowledge on Menstruation and Their Menstrual Hygiene Practices: A Study in Tamale, Ghana Evans Paul Kwame Ameade 1 and Helene Akpene Garti 2 1 Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana 2 Department of Community Nutrition, School of Allied Health Sciences, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana Correspondence should be addressed to Evans Paul Kwame Ameade; sokpesh@yahoo.com Received 3 March 2016; Accepted 26 June 2016 Academic Editor: Masaru Shimada Copyright © 2016 E. P. K. Ameade and H. A. Garti. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Positive perception about menstruation and good menstrual hygiene practice safeguards the health of postpubescent females by reducing their vulnerability to reproductive and urinary tract infections. Using a questionnaire, a cross-sectional study involving 293 randomly selected female undergraduate students in northern Ghana assessed the relationship between knowledge on menstruation and the practice of safe menstrual hygiene. Data collected was analyzed using GraphPad 5.01. Tis study found that although majority of respondents (73.4%) were aware of menstruation before menarche, most of them experienced fear and panic when it occurred. Mothers were the frst to be informed when menstruation occurred, although teachers frst provided them knowledge on menstruation. Respondents’ knowledge on menstruation was average (57.3%) but their menstrual hygiene practice was good (80.2%). Age ( = 0.005) and course of study ( = 0.0008) signifcantly infuenced respondents’ knowledge on menstruation with older students as well as the medical and midwifery students being most knowledgeable. Muslim rather than Christian female students practiced better menstrual hygiene ( = 0.0001). Average knowledge score on menstruation indicated a defcit of knowledge on the anatomy and physiology of the female reproductive system. Increasing knowledge on menstruation had a positive and signifcant efect on practice of good menstrual hygiene. 1. Introduction Menstruation, a unique event in the life of a developing girl child, is one of the milestones of puberty. It involves the cyclical shedding of the inner lining of the uterus which is controlled by the hormones produced by the hypothalamus and pituitary glands located in the brain [1]. Te age at which women experience their frst menstrual fow (menarche) varies widely across the world but generally most studies report that it occurs between ages of 13 and 15 years [2–7]. Although the age at which women stop menstruating is not the same in all nations, menopause is reported to usually occur between the ages of 45 and 50 years [2]. A woman there- fore spends approximately 2100 days menstruating which is equivalent to almost 6 years of her reproductive life [8]. Whereas in some societies onset of menstruation is cele- brated, it is the beginning of imposition of dietary and social restrictions at some other places [1, 9–11]. Tese sociocultural impositions during the period of menstruation make some menstruating females perceive this phenomenon not only as burdensome but also as an event that ushers in fear, disgust, and shame. Provision of adequate knowledge on menstruation before menarche could make young females view menstruation as an important milestone in their lives and just a natural phe- nomenon. Parents and close relations are expected to be the foremost source of information on menstruation to young females but unfortunately in Africa, parent-child commu- nication about sexually related matters is poor; hence most adolescents acquire sometimes incorrect information on the reproductive system from their friends [12]. Low knowledge on menstruation increases the risk of contracting reproductive tract infections as well as pelvic Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Preventive Medicine Volume 2016, Article ID 1056235, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/1056235