An MHH Intervention in Bangladesh Health Systems

Summary

Over 50% of Bangladeshi women and girls use old cloths as menstrual absorbents due to cost, comfort, and familiarity. A substantial proportion, comprising 52% of adolescent girls and 62% of women washed the cloths with soap and water. However, more than 60% dried it in hiding instead of drying openly under the sun and over 40% of adolescent and women stored the cloths in a secret place for reuse rather than with regular clothes. Nevertheless, the minimal alternatives often necessitate the use of locally available disposable sanitary pads despite the cost. Still there are some factors which jeopardize the proper menstrual health and hygiene. These include lack of suitable sanitation facilities, availability and accessibility to affordable quality hygienic menstrual products for adolescent girls and women at home, educational institutions and at workplaces, insufficient water, sanitation facilities with proper disposal methods for used products and prevailing taboos and misconception surrounding menstruation and menstrual health hygiene. Consequently, women and girls in Bangladesh adopt unsafe and unhygienic practices to manage menstruation and face significant challenges and health problems that impact various aspects of lives. There are limited options for menstrual hygiene management. Menstrual hygiene management product which is low-cost, comfortable, easy to use and made can be the sustainable option and also align with strategic directions of national menstrual hygiene management strategy-2021. This proposal addresses lack of a proper solution for menstrual hygiene management as a barrier to a quality life for a woman. Rather than trying to shift over 50% of menstruating women and girls into an environmentally unfriendly and high-cost method of using single-use disposable pads, the investigators will develop and trial a low-cost intervention to improve MHH practices among the women and girls in Bangladesh. Improving MHH facilities at household level through the community level health systems structure can improve MHH knowledge, practice. The investigators hypothesize that the combination of the participatory BCC materials addressing social marginalization, MHH, and reproductive health, the provision of Sultana cloth pads and Sultana washer and dryer bags, and MHH Working Group meetings will increase uptake (at least 70%) and acceptability, feasibility and willingness (at least 50%) to pay for intervention products, improve knowledge, practices of menstruating women and girls in Bangladesh. The objectives are to assess the acceptability and feasibility of using Sultana cloth pad and Sultana washer and dryer bags, to assess the effect of Sultana cloth pad and Sultana washer and dryer Bags on improved MHH knowledge and practices and to measure the impact on MHH self-efficacy and quality of life. This study will be a cRCT conducting near Dhaka. There will be 331 menstruating women and adolescent girls in each arm (control and intervention). Before conducting the cRCT, first the investigators will call for a consultative meeting of the prior "MHH Working Group" that the investigators formed as part of the BMGF-funded "Piloting menstrual hygiene management interventions among urban and rural schools in Bangladesh" project, align this proposed trial objectives and hold meetings, when required, to collect the feedback and discuss the process required to achieve the targeted policy changes and to scale out the MHH interventions (Sultana cloth pad and Sultana washer and dryer bags) in the health systems. The investigators will train relevant facilitators (FWV/CHCPs) to deliver monthly sessions on puberty, MHH, and SRHR to menstruating women and adolescent girls. The investigators will conduct baseline survey to explore current MHH knowledge, practices, attitudes self-efficacy and stigma. Then in the intervention clusters, the investigators will roll out the interventions through the existing reproductive health programs in the health system and community clinics to ensure broad outreach and accessibility. In the control clusters, the investigators will not implement any strategy. The investigators will conduct monthly fidelity assessments with randomly selected participants to explore whether the Sultana cloth pad, Sultana Washer and Dryer Bag are distributed and training is provided as planned, if the participants receive the intended quantity of materials and duration of engagement, quality of delivery, participant responsiveness (level of use, understanding, and satisfaction with the intervention products), reach (proportion of intended participants who received the intervention), and differentiation (ensuring control clusters do not receive or access intervention components) and any modifications (if any or required). Then an endline survey will be conducted to assess the improved MHH knowledge, practices, attitudes, intervention uptake and reduced stigma at the end of the cRCT.

Conditions

• Menstrual Health Intervention
• Product Use Issue
• Hygiene Practices and Knowledge
• Menstrual Hygiene Management
• Acceptability
• Feasibility Study
• Self-Efficacy
• Quality of Life

Interventions

COMBINATION_PRODUCT

Menstrual health and hygiene intervention

The multicomponent intervention includes: 1. The Sultana Cloth Pad (Patent no. 1006795) is a simple innovation made with locally available flannel cloth on the outside. Poly-micro fabric as an absorbent attached to the top as a water-proof barrier layer. Women and girls fold it to use as a menstrual absorbent. Waterproof storage bag to store/take the stained cloth pad back to home for washing/drying. 2. The BCC materials comprised four modules: 1) growing up 2) reproductive systems 3) menstruation and 4) nutrition. 3. The Sultana Washer Bag (Patent application no. P/BD/2024/000154) is made out of waterproof, polyester fabric with a scrubbing pad attached to the inner part of the bag to scrub the menstrual cloths. The bag can be sealed with a strap at one end while washing and drain the water afterward. The Sultana Dryer Bag (Patent application no. P/BD/2024/000153) is made of mesh and is rectangular. It is black in color to maximize the amount of sunshine it can absorb.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, Canada

  collaborator OTHER

• Directorate General of Health Services, Bangladesh

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Farhana Sultana · International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

40 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-10-27

Primary Completion

2026-06-11

Completion

2026-11-30

Countries

• Bangladesh

Study Locations