A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES AND MENSTRUAL HYGIENE: FROM 2007 TO 2020

Adolescence is a transitional stage between the childhood and adulthood where one faces so many physical, psychological, social and cultural pressures. Due to the unset of the menstrual cycle, most of the adolescent girls go through anxiety, fear and stigma in this phase of life. With an objective to conduct a systematic literature review of existing studies on menstrual hygiene and MHHM (Menstrual Health and Hygiene Model) this study is undertaken and by this the researchers have tried to identify major gaps in existing studies of all over the world. Menstrual hygiene is a precautionary measure to overcome the taboo of menstruation among young girls. The researchers conducted SLR with help of Google scholar and PubMed to explore different research articles related to MHHM (Menstrual Health & Hygiene Model) until December 2020. The study applied PRISMA technique on 390 research studies retrieved from Google Scholar and PubMed and only 40 papers were selected for final review. From the study it is found that, majority of the studies are conducted in developing countries from Asia and Africa. But contrary to this most of these studies are conducted by scholars/researchers from developed countries. Only 20% of studies are from developed countries like USA and western European countries. One of the major findings of the study is that most of the research studies lack a proper theoretical framework and not used any theory or model. The present study will help the researchers to focus on the specific geographic regions where major studies are not conducted on menstrual health and hygiene. Similarly, it will further encourage the researchers to go for qualitative studies and developing proper theoretical frameworks and follow proper communication models for the research study.