Knowledge and Understanding of Menstrual Health in Women With Intellectual Disabilities: A Brief Report.
Laura St John, Samantha Beckman, Abby Robertson and 2 others
PMID 41392415WHAT IT FOUND
Among 22 women with intellectual disabilities, 9 had low menstrual knowledge, and 15 rated pad use as fully independent while 12 rated tampon use as never independent.
The biggest gaps were how often to change products and menopause.
Key findings
01Nine participants scored below four, indicating low understanding of menstruation and menopause.
02Sixteen participants, 73%, answered incorrectly about how often to change a tampon or what menopause means.
03Fifteen of 22 participants rated their ability to use a menstrual pad independently as 10, and 12 rated their ability to use a tampon independently as 1.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study included only 22 women, all recruited from a Special Olympics chapter, so the findings may not apply to women with intellectual disabilities who do not participate in sport. The menstrual self-care questionnaire was created by the research team and has not been validated. One participant provided only age and gender, so the demographic sample is smaller than the analysis sample. The paper describes a knowledge score range of 0 to 7 but reports scores up to 8, which makes score interpretation less clear. The study measured knowledge and self-reported skills at one time point and did not test whether education or support changes menstrual health.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the University of Calgary Start Something Fund.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this study shows a menstrual health education programme works. It only measured current knowledge and self-reported skills in 22 Special Olympics athletes, and it did not test an intervention.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →