menstrual management using a mobile application in adolescent girls with mild intellectual disabilities

Conditions: Mother; Menstrual Hygiene Management; Hand Hygiene; Intellectual Disability, Mild

Summary: in the study conducted to determine the effectiveness of menstruation management training given with a mobile application (bağımsız yapabilirim) in female adolescents with mild intellectual disabilities in the independent living support program, the effect of the developed mobile application on hand hygiene and pad change will be determined. the research is a randomized controlled study.

when the existing literature is examined, it is seen that there are limited number of studies on menstruation management education. in the studies, menstrual hygiene education was given to mentally disabled adolescent girls in small groups with model dolls or videos on social media that were not prepared by experts. although these studies show that menstrual hygiene education given to mentally disabled students is successful, they are limited to small sample groups. for adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities, the onset of menstruation affects their independence and creates additional concerns for mothers at home, at school and in other settings. in studies conducted with mothers of adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities, mothers reported that they worried about their daughters' inability to understand menstruation, inability to change pads or dispose of them in the trash can appropriately, inability to pay attention to privacy during these special days, and that they did not send their daughters to school because they thought that they could not manage the menstruation process. mothers' worries and fears during this process cause adolescent girls with intellectual disabilities to spend approximately one week at home every month, preventing them from socializing, negatively affecting their academic skills, further slowing their developmental processes and making it difficult for them to get used to independent life. in addition, studies show that the quality of life of both mothers and girls decreases significantly due to poor management of the menstruation process. the main aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of menstruation management training given to female adolescents with mild intellectual disabilities using a mobile application (bağımsız yapabilirim).

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * diagnosed with mild intellectual disability * menstrual cycle has started and menstruation is regular * primary caregivers are mothers * toilet-trained * has the ability to stick an adhesive object to a surface and remove it from the surface * have the ability to dress and undress * have the ability to follow simple instructions * adolescent girls and their mothers who have the ability to recognize the materials to be used will be included in the study. exclusion criteria: * not willing to use the mobile application at any stage of the study * participated in a different training on menstruation management while the research was ongoing * not completing the education process * not completing the data collection forms * mentally disabled adolescent girls with moderate, severe and very severe intellectual disabilities and their mothers will be excluded from the study.

Keywords: mild intellectual disability adolescent mother menstruation management hand hygiene