Abstract
This study is a comparative interventional study which examined the effect of Information Education and Communication (IEC) on the perception of menstruation among adolescence secondary school girls in Akwa Ibom State, South- South, Nigeria. Adolescents’ perception of menstruation was assessed based on how they perceive the importance of menstrual knowledge, attitude to menstrual problems and menstrual problems that require treatment. Sample size of 600 adolescent females, 300 from rural and 300 from urban areas were selected from a population of 431,293 adolescent females by multi-stage sampling technique. Randomization was done with the use of table of random numbers. Frequencies and percentages were used to analyse categorical variables and descriptive statistics were computed for continuous variables. chi- square test wasused to determine association between socio- demographics of the respondents and their perception of menstruation. The effect of this intervention was evaluated after three months and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 20.0) was used to enhance data analysis. Statistical significance was tested at 0.05 level and p<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Of the 600 copies of the questionnaire administered, 559(93.2%), 286 from urban and 273 from rural were retrieved. Results showed some statistically significant difference in the perception of menstruation between rural and urban school girls (p<0.05). There was also a significant improvement among rural and urban respondents after intervention (p<0.05). Therefore, health education on menstruation should be started early enough in secondary schools and this should be done on a regular basis for reinforcement of the messages.

Key words: Adolescent girls, Health-seeking behaviour, menstrual problems, Urban, Rural