The abstract is read at the publisher; the summary is JClub's.
In 125 publicly accessible toilet facilities audited across 112 Atlanta, Georgia locations, the Menstrual Friendly Public Toilet Index averaged 0.797, with lowest scores for accessibility (0.622) and menstrual resources (0.490).
- Why it matters: Clean, functional bathrooms may still fail to support menstrual health and hygiene, especially where privately operated toilets effectively serve the public. The study fills a gap on menstrual-friendliness in a high-income urban setting and tests differences by funding and neighborhood context.
- What they did: Field audits covered women’s, gender-neutral, and family toilets in 15 areas using an adapted Menstrual Friendly Public Toilet framework across six dimensions, producing domain-specific and overall scores. Facilities were compared by funding source and descriptively across business, residential, tourist, and transit neighborhood types.
- The result: Only 4.0% of facilities provided menstrual products or a functional dispenser, and overall scores did not differ significantly by funding source. Government-funded facilities had higher structural feature scores (0.952 vs 0.913; p=0.027), while menstrual health and hygiene resource scores ranged from 0.200 (residential) to 0.775 (tourist).
The findingWhy it mattersWhat they didThe result
AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.