Spatiotemporal change in socioeconomic inequality in hygienic menstrual product use among adolescent girls in India during 2015–2019

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of adolescent girls in India, NFHS 4 and NFHS 5

Background Characteristics	NFHS-4		NFHS-5
Background Characteristics	N (117, 749)	%	N (114, 839)	%
Age at menarche (in years)
≤ 12	22,400	19.02	20,305	17.68
13–15	92,332	78.41	91,604	79.77
≥ 16	3,016	2.56	2,930	2.55
Education
No education	8,057	6.84	5,063	4.41
Primary	8,193	6.96	5,948	5.18
Secondary	93,376	79.30	95,215	82.91
Higher	8,123	6.90	8,613	7.50
Religion
Hindu	94,796	80.51	94,277	82.09
Muslim	17,229	14.63	15,548	13.54
Christian	2,317	1.97	2,323	2.02
Others	3,406	2.89	2,692	2.34
Social groups
SC	26,208	22.26	27,895	24.29
ST	11,671	9.91	11,530	10.04
OBC	54,641	46.40	53,211	46.34
Other	25,229	21.43	22,203	19.33
Exposure to mass media
No exposure to mass media	18,070	15.35	22,115	19.26
At least exposed to any one kind of mas	99,679	84.65	92,724	80.74
Marital status
Currently not married	1,00,108	85.02	1,00,944	87.90
Currently married	17,641	14.98	13,895	12.10
Region of residence
Northern	15,540	13.20	16,507	14.37
Central	34,900	29.64	35,040	30.51
Eastern	27,413	23.28	27,771	24.18
Western	15,546	13.20	13,658	11.89
Southern	20,993	17.83	19,061	16.60
Northeastern	3,357	2.85	2,803	2.44
Household wealth
Poorest	24,389	20.71	25,190	21.94
Poorer	26,344	22.37	26,072	22.70
Middle	25,124	21.34	24,232	21.10
Richer	22,874	19.43	21,617	18.82
Richest	19,018	16.15	17,727	15.44
Place of residence
Urban	35,719	30.34	32,269	28.10
Rural	82,030	69.66	82,570	71.90

Note: N = sample size; CI = confidence interval; SC = Scheduled Caste; ST = Scheduled Tribe; OBC = Other Backward Classes; all percentages are weighted

ISSN: 1475-9276