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Association between unhygienic menstrual management practices and prevalence of lower reproductive tract infections: a hospital-based cross-sectional study in Odisha, India

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Infectious Diseases, September 2018
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Mentioned by

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9 news outlets
blogs
3 blogs
twitter
24 X users
facebook
2 Facebook pages

Citations

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120 Dimensions

Readers on

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300 Mendeley
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Title
Association between unhygienic menstrual management practices and prevalence of lower reproductive tract infections: a hospital-based cross-sectional study in Odisha, India
Published in
BMC Infectious Diseases, September 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12879-018-3384-2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Belen Torondel, Shalini Sinha, Jyoti Ranjan Mohanty, Tapoja Swain, Pranati Sahoo, Bijaya Panda, Arati Nayak, Mary Bara, Bibiana Bilung, Oliver Cumming, Pinaki Panigrahi, Padmalaya Das

Abstract

The extent to which reproductive tract infections (RTIs) are associated with poor menstrual hygiene management (MHM) practices has not been extensively studied. We aimed to determine whether poor menstrual hygiene practices were associated with three common infections of the lower reproductive tract; Bacterial vaginosis (BV), Candida, and Trichomonas vaginalis (TV). Non-pregnant women of reproductive age (18-45 years) and attending one of two hospitals in Odisha, India, between April 2015 and February 2016 were recruited for the study. A standardized questionnaire was used to collect information on: MHM practices, clinical symptoms for the three infections, and socio-economic and demographic information. Specimens from posterior vaginal fornix were collected using swabs for diagnosis of BV, Candida and TV infection. A total of 558 women were recruited for the study of whom 62.4% were diagnosed with at least one of the three tested infections and 52% presented with one or more RTI symptoms. BV was the most prevalent infection (41%), followed by Candida infection (34%) and TV infection (5.6%). After adjustment for potentially confounding factors, women diagnosed with Candida infection were more likely to use reusable absorbent material (aPRR = 1.54, 95%CI 1.2-2.0) and practice lower frequency of personal washing (aPRR = 1.34, 95%CI 1.07-1.7). Women with BV were more likely to practice personal washing less frequently (aPRR = 1.25, 95%CI 1.0-1.5), change absorbent material outside a toilet facility (aPRR = 1.21, 95%CI 1.0-1.48) whilst a higher frequency of absorbent material changing was protective (aPRR = 0.56, 95%CI 0.4-0.75). No studied factors were found to be associated with TV infection. In addition, among women reusing absorbent material, Candida but not BV or TV - infection was more frequent who dried their pads inside their houses and who stored the cloth hidden in the toilet compartment. The results of our study add to growing number of studies which demonstrate a strong and consistent association between poor menstrual hygiene practices and higher prevalence of lower RTIs.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 24 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 300 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 300 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 34 11%
Student > Master 32 11%
Student > Ph. D. Student 19 6%
Researcher 17 6%
Student > Postgraduate 15 5%
Other 40 13%
Unknown 143 48%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 43 14%
Nursing and Health Professions 33 11%
Social Sciences 24 8%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 12 4%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 7 2%
Other 24 8%
Unknown 157 52%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 107. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 September 2023.
All research outputs
#397,799
of 25,579,912 outputs
Outputs from BMC Infectious Diseases
#104
of 8,657 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#8,441
of 352,263 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Infectious Diseases
#2
of 145 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,579,912 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 8,657 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 352,263 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 145 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.