School of Nursing and Public Health, Department of Nursing Management and Education, The University of Dodoma, Dodoma, Tanzania.
BMC Womens Health. 2023 May 4;23(1):226. doi: 10.1186/s12905-023-02356-6.
To harmonize and enhance economic growth at the individual, family, community, and national levels, healthy women embody the guardian of family health and a healthy world. They are anticipated to have the freedom to choose their identity in opposition to female genital mutilation in a thoughtful, responsible, and informed manner. Despite restrictive traditions and culture, it is unclear from the available information what exactly would be the drivers of FGM practices in Tanzania from an individual or social perspective. The purpose of this study was to evaluate female genital mutilation among women of reproductive age in terms of its frequency, knowledge, attitudes, and purposeful practice.
Three hundred twenty-four randomly selected Tanzanian women of reproductive age were studied using a community-based analytical cross-sectional study design quantitatively. Structured questionnaires from earlier studies that were delivered by interviewers were utilized to gather information from the study participants. The statistical software package Statistical Packages for Social Science was used to examine the data. (SPSS v.23). A 5% significance threshold was used with a 95% confidence interval.
A total of 324 women of reproductive age participated in the study with a 100% response rate with a mean age of 25 ± 7.481 years. Findings revealed that 81.8% (n = 265) of study participants were mutilated. 85.6% (n = 277) of women had inadequate knowledge about FGM, and 75.9% (n = 246) had a negative attitude toward it. However, 68.8% (n = 223) of them were willing to practice FGM. Their age (36-49 years) (AOR = 2.053; p < 0.014; 95%CI: 0.704, 4.325), single women (AOR = 2.443; p < 0.029; 95%CI: 1.376, 4.572), never go to school (AOR = 2.042; p < 0.011; 95%CI: 1.726, 4.937), housewives (AOR = 1.236; p < 0.012; 95%CI: 0.583, 3.826), extended family (AOR = 1.436; p < 0.015; 95%CI: 0.762, 3.658), inadequate knowledge (AOR = 2.041; p < 0.038; 95%CI: 0.734, 4.358) and negative attitude (AOR = 2.241; p < 0.042;95%CI: 1.008, 4.503) were significantly associated to practice female genital mutilation.
The study observed that the rate of female genital mutilation was significantly high and still, women demonstrated the intention to continue practicing it. However, their sociodemographic characteristic profiles, inadequate knowledge, and negative attitude towards FGM were significantly linked with the prevalence. The private agencies, local organizations, the Ministry of Health, and community health workers are alerted to the findings of the current study to design and develop interventions and awareness-raising campaigns for women of reproductive age against female genital mutilation.
为了协调和促进个人、家庭、社区和国家层面的经济增长，健康的女性是家庭健康和健康世界的守护者。人们期望她们能够以深思熟虑、负责任和知情的方式自由选择自己的身份，而不是进行女性割礼。尽管存在限制传统和文化的因素，但从现有信息中尚不清楚从个人或社会角度来看，坦桑尼亚女性割礼实践的驱动因素究竟是什么。本研究旨在评估生殖期妇女中女性割礼的频率、知识、态度和有目的的实践。
采用社区为基础的分析性横断面研究设计，对 324 名随机选择的生殖期坦桑尼亚妇女进行了研究。研究人员使用了先前研究中的结构化问卷，通过访谈向研究参与者收集信息。使用统计软件包社会科学统计软件包（SPSS v.23）来检查数据。采用 5%的显著性水平和 95%的置信区间。
共有 324 名生殖期妇女参加了研究，应答率为 100%，平均年龄为 25±7.481 岁。研究结果表明，81.8%（n=265）的研究参与者接受了割礼。85.6%（n=277）的女性对女性割礼缺乏了解，75.9%（n=246）对其持负面态度。然而，68.8%（n=223）的人愿意进行女性割礼。他们的年龄（36-49 岁）（OR=2.053；p<0.014；95%CI：0.704，4.325）、单身女性（OR=2.443；p<0.029；95%CI：1.376，4.572）、从未上过学（OR=2.042；p<0.011；95%CI：1.726，4.937）、家庭主妇（OR=1.236；p<0.012；95%CI：0.583，3.826）、大家庭（OR=1.436；p<0.015；95%CI：0.762，3.658）、知识不足（OR=2.041；p<0.038；95%CI：0.734，4.358）和负面态度（OR=2.241；p<0.042；95%CI：1.008，4.503）与女性割礼的实践显著相关。
研究观察到，女性割礼的比率显著较高，尽管如此，女性仍表现出继续进行割礼的意愿。然而，她们的社会人口统计学特征、缺乏知识以及对女性割礼的负面态度与该实践的流行程度显著相关。私人机构、地方组织、卫生部和社区卫生工作者应注意到当前研究的发现，以便针对生殖期妇女制定和开展反对女性割礼的干预措施和提高认识运动。
