Women's empowerment and the intention to continue the practice of female genital cutting in Egypt

The study aimed to [dis]prove the association of the level of women's empowerment with their future intention to perpetuate female genital cutting for their daughters. In a national representative community-based sample of 14,393 currently-married women in Egypt, the level of empowerment, intention to continue the practice, and other socio- demographic variables were collected in the 2000 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey. Secondary in-depth analysis was conducted on data downloaded from MEASURE Demographic Health Surveys [MEASURE DHS] website. About 14% of the women intended to discontinue the practice. Twenty-six percent of the women were empowered in all household decisions. Levels of women's empowerment adjusted for age, residence, education, interaction between empowerment and education, work status, and female genital cutting status of currently-married women were entered in six logistic regression models in a sequential way. In the last model, those of high levels of empowerment and education were 8.06 times more likely not intending to perpetuate female genital cutting for their daughters than low- empowered low-educated women

Physical violence and some reproductive health variables among currently married Egyptian women

This study investigates the relationship between women exposure to marital physical violence and some reproductive health variables including the number of ANC visits during the last pregnancy, intended pregnancy, reporting of STDs symptoms and visiting governmental health facility in the past 6 months prior to the survey. The study was conducted on the EDHS, 2005 data. A sub-sample of 5249 currently- married women were investigated for both ever and the 12 months prior to survey exposure to physical violence by their current husbands, and its association with the aforementioned variables adjusting for the effect of respondents' age, education, work, residence, wealth index, number of children ever borne, and empowerment in household decisions. Around 29.4% of the studied women have been ever exposed to physical violence by their current husbands; of them 60% have been subjected to it in the 12 months prior to the survey. Logistic regression models showed that exposure to physical violence predicted lower number of ANC visits, unintended pregnancy, reporting of STDs symptoms, and utilization of governmental health facility in the past 6 months prior to the survey. The relationship between exposure to physical violence and poor reproductive health outcomes was strong to hold, adjusting for other covariates. The increased likelihood of visiting governmental health facilities by physically abused wives supports the recommendation to use public health services as entry point for management of violence against women [VAW], and to develop a comprehensive health sector response to various impacts of VAW

Lactational amenorrhoea and modern contraceptives use among nursing women in Egypt 2003

To evaluate the potential for Lactational Amenorrhoea Method [LAM] and passive LAM among women with children below 6 months in the 2003 Egypt Demographic Health Survey [2003 EDHS], to assess the determinants of amenorrhea, and to examine the association of exclusive breastfeeding and amenorrhea with using modern contraceptive methods among nursing mothers of children below 2 years, adjusting for other associated variables. Data from the 2003 EDHS was downloaded from the DHS website. A sub-sample of women fulfilling all the four criteria were selected: 1] women with last birth of children less than 2 years; 2] currently married; 3] not being sterilized; and 4] currently breast feeding their children. Accordingly, 1934 women entered into the statistical analysis, of them 629 had children below 6 months. Nearly 24% of nursing mothers with children below 6 months met LAM criteria, of them passive LAM users constituted 79.1%. For women with children below 24 months, determinants of amenorrhea were exclusive breast feeding, unemployment, number of living children, husband education, number of feeding at night, and having a male sex child. Higher education, urban residence, positive attitude towards contraception increased the likelihood of modern contraceptives use, whereas amenorrhea, exclusive breast feeding, and having a wanted child decreased its likelihood in multivariate analysis. Exclusive breast feeding was associated with amenorrhea and modern contraceptive methods use in a direct and inverse fashion respectively. LAM is a commonly used method but it is liable to discontinuation or violation of its criteria. Hence, it is recommended to educate both the health care providers and users about it

national study of gynecological morbidities in Oman. effect of women's autonomy

To determine the level of gynecological morbidities and other related morbidities; and to examine the effect of women empowerment on the reproductive tract infections among currently married Omani women. This study is a part of the National Health Survey in the Sultanate of Oman, conducted between January and March 2000. The total number of households selected was 1968 with a total of 2037 ever-married women aged 15-49 years, of them 1662 were eligible to complete the gynecological morbidity symptoms questionnaire and to be clinically examined for gynecological morbidities. Despite the free facilities provided, one in every 4 women had reproductive tract infection and nearly half of the women suffer from at least one kind of gynecological disease. The prevalence of any sexually transmitted diseases was 4%, approximately 10% had combined genital prolapsed and 27% had cervical ectopy. Older women, education, work status, urban residence, heads of households, high economic status, and took their own decision about going to hospital, are significantly more empowered. Gynecological morbidity is highly prevalent among ever-married women. The contribution of the sexually transmitted diseases to the high prevalence of reproductive tract infection appears to be modest. Genital prolapse was one of the risk factors for reproductive tract infection, education as a proxy for women empowerment was a poor predictor for the occurrence of the diseases

Reliability of Omani women's self-reporting of gynaecologic morbidities

To assess the agreement of women's self-reports of gynaecologic morbidities [reproductive tract infections, RTIs; genital prolapse, and urinary tract infections, UTIs], physician's observations and the final diagnosis of these conditions. Subjects and A nationally representative sample of 1,662 Omani women selected by a multi-stage, stratified probability-sampling procedure was included in the study. A questionnaire interview, physical and gynaecologic examination, and laboratory investigations were used. A total of 1,364 women completed all forms. The agreement between women's report of vaginal discharge and the diagnosis of RTI was poor. The sensitivity but not the specificity improved when the women were asked about specific discharge questions that upset them or are medically suspicious. Sensitivity of self-report in the diagnosis of genital prolapse and UTI from self-report was high but specificity was low. Conclusions: Self-report of vaginal discharge, coupled with clinical examination, can be used in community diagnosis of RTI. Self-report of symptoms of vaginal prolapse can also be used for community diagnosis of genital prolapse. A urinary culture should supplement self-reports of UTI to enhance specificity, although the presence of a positive culture in the absence of symptoms is of no clinical significance in non-pregnant women or women without renal disease

Depression, aggression and suicide ideation among adolescents in Alexandria

The aim of this study was to measure the adolescents

Determinants of women's fertility in Oman

International studies have the inverse relationship of women education and empowerment on fertility. Our aim is to study the association of women education, and empowerment with some of the fertility determinants in a community based survey. A cross sectional survey of the health status of the Omani community was designed. Face to face interviews with 2037 women, who were or had been married including demographic data, fertility patterns, family planning, 2 women empowerment indices [decision making and freedom of movement], and other modules reproductive health, were carried out during the year 2000. About 31% of the sample was considered highly empowered in decision making and the mean number of decisions taken in the household was 4.46 for the overall sample. For freedom of movement, 29% of the sample was highly empowered with a mean number of 3.88 for the overall sample. The mean values of both indices varied significantly according to age, residence, level of education and work status. Higher freedom of movement score women were more likely to have less number of children in the first 20 years of marriage. Women of higher score of decision making index were more likely to have longer closed birth interval Those scored low in the decision making index were more likely to get a child at an earlier age. There is inverse relationship between both education and empowerment and fertility. However, the 2 indices of women empowerment; decision making and freedom of movement were not always predicting the same fertility indicator, as women's empowerment is multidimensional in nature