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Obstetrics and gynaecology
Protocol
Menstrual health and period poverty among young people who menstruate in the Barcelona metropolitan area (Spain): protocol of a mixed-methods study
  1. Laura Medina-Perucha1,
  2. Constanza Jacques-Aviñó1,2,
  3. Carme Valls-Llobet3,
  4. Rosa Turbau-Valls4,
  5. Diana Pinzón5,6,
  6. Lola Hernández7,
  7. Paula Briales Canseco8,
  8. Tomàs López-Jiménez1,2,
  9. Enara Solana Lizarza9,
  10. Jordina Munrós Feliu10,
  11. Anna Berenguera1,6
  1. 1Fundació Institut Universitari per a la recerca a l'Atenció Primària de Salut Jordi Gol i Gurina (IDIAPJGol), Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
  2. 2Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalunya, Spain
  3. 3Centro de Análisis y Programas Sanitarios (CAPS), Barcelona, Spain
  4. 4Institut Català de la Salut, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
  5. 5SomiArte Taller, Barcelona, Spain
  6. 6Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
  7. 7La Caravana Roja, Murcia, Spain
  8. 8Comunidad de Madrid Consejería de Educación, Madrid, Spain
  9. 9Department of Education, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja - Campus de Logrono, Logrono, La Rioja, Spain
  10. 10Atenció a la Salut Sexual i Reproductiva (ASSIR) Muntanya/La Mina, Institut Català de la Salut, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
  1. Correspondence to Dr Laura Medina-Perucha; lmedina{at}idiapjgol.info

Abstract

Introduction The importance of menstrual health has been historically neglected, mostly due to taboos and misconceptions around menstruation and androcentrism within health knowledge and health systems around the world. There has also been a lack of attention on ‘period poverty’, which refers to the financial, social, cultural and political barriers to access menstrual products and education. The main aim of this research is to explore menstrual health and experiences of period poverty among young people who menstruate (YPM).

Methods and analysis This is a convergent mixed-methods study, which will combine a quantitative transversal study to identify the prevalence of period poverty among YPM (11–16 years old), and a qualitative study that will focus on exploring menstruation-related experiences of YPM and other groups (young people who do not menstruate (YNM); primary healthcare professionals; educators and policy-makers). The study will be conducted in the Barcelona metropolitan area between 2020 and 2021. Eighteen schools and 871 YPM will be recruited for the quantitative study. Sixty-five YPM will participate in the qualitative study. Forty-five YNM and 12 professionals will also be recruited to take part in the qualitative study. Socioeconomic and cultural diversity will be main vectors for recruitment, to ensure the findings are representative to the social and cultural context. Descriptive statistics will be performed for each variable to identify asymmetric distributions and differences among groups will be evaluated. Thematic analysis will be used for qualitative data analyses

Ethics and dissemination Several ethical issues have been considered, especially as this study includes the participation of underage participants. The study has received ethical approval by the IDIAPJGol Research Ethics Committee (19/178 P). Research findings will be disseminated to key audiences, such as YPM, YNM, parents/legal tutors, health professionals, educators, youth (and other relevant) organisations, general community members, stakeholders and policy-makers, and academia.

  • menstrual health
  • health services
  • education
  • young people
  • social medicine
  • public health
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-035914

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @Lauramedp, @ABerenguera

    • Contributors LM-P has led and coordinated the conception and design of this study. She has written this manuscript. AB has been involved in the conception and design in this study. She has reviewed and made substantial contributions to this manuscript. TL-J has contributed to the design of the quantitative study, performed power calculations and written the plan for the quantitative data analyses. He has reviewed and made substantial contributions to this manuscript. CJ-A, CV-L, RT-V, DP, LH, PBC, ESL and JMF have contributed to the design of this study. She has reviewed and made substantial contributions to this manuscript.

    • Funding This work was supported by The European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health, project number P-2019-A-01.

    • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research. Refer to the Methods section for further details.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.