IoT-Based Smart Wearable System Design for Predicting and Monitoring Menstruation Phase Among Adolescent Girls
摘要
The menstrual cycle is a natural process for women that occurs monthly and it can be regular and irregular. The periods of an irregular menstrual cycle are heavier or lighter than usual and last longer than 35 days or shorter than 21 day, becoming a problem for adolescent girls, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), as they are unable to control their menstruation cycle, leading to lack of preparation, leaving their hygiene pads such as menstrual cups, tampons, or capulana. Consequently, they can suffer bullying from their social environment like school which can lead to a high rate of absenteeism and dropout altogether. One possible solution nowadays is to adopt IoT technologies to help adolescent girls better predict and monitor their menstrual cycle, allowing them to participate fully in society. As such, the goal of this work was to propose a simple and low-cost IoT-based smart solution for predicting and monitoring the menstruation phase among adolescent girls in the context of SSA. So, we have identified the type of sensors, microcontroller, communication modules, cloud platform for data storage and monitoring, besides the type of tinyML that can be used for the implementation of the proposed solution which will be the next phase. This study therefore has great importance on menstrual awareness among adolescent girls which can promote overall well-being in educational environments which is one of the objectives of sustainable development goal three: ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.