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Perception of Harmful Traditional Practices Among Women of Childbearing Age in Oru West Local Government Area, Imo State

Received: 17 January 2015    Accepted: 1 February 2015    Published: 9 February 2015
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Abstract

Harmful traditional practices pose severe health risks to girls and women. Women’s perception of harmful traditional practices may assist in their eradication or perpetuate them. There is paucity of research on perception of harmful traditional practices among women in Oru West LGA, Imo State. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. The study population comprised 31,838 registered women of child bearing age who registered for ANCs from January, 2014 to September, 2014 in Oru West LGA, Imo State at the time of study. A sample of 384 women of childbearing age was used for the study. The multistage sampling procedure was adopted to select the sample. The instrument for data collection was a structured Questionnaire on Perception of Harmful Traditional Practices among Women. The questionnaire was validated by three experts. Reliability co-efficient of the instrument was 0.81. Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 20). The results showed that 49.3 per cent of women perceived identified traditional practices as harmful to women. Age of women had influence on perceived harmful traditional practices while no significant difference was found in the perception of harmful traditional practices based on women’s level of education. This study envisages that harmful traditional practices are prevalent in different cultural backgrounds in Nigeria with attendant health risks for girls and women. Potential interventions include: Public health promotion activities such as advocacy, economic empowerment and capacity building programmes for women and girls particularly in rural communities.

Published in Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 3, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11
Page(s) 150-160
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Perception, Traditional Practices, Discrimination, Culture, Advocacy

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Olaoluwa Samson Agbaje, Benedicta Ndidi Agu, Kenechukwu Chinenye Osakwe. (2015). Perception of Harmful Traditional Practices Among Women of Childbearing Age in Oru West Local Government Area, Imo State. Science Journal of Public Health, 3(2), 150-160. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11

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    ACS Style

    Olaoluwa Samson Agbaje; Benedicta Ndidi Agu; Kenechukwu Chinenye Osakwe. Perception of Harmful Traditional Practices Among Women of Childbearing Age in Oru West Local Government Area, Imo State. Sci. J. Public Health 2015, 3(2), 150-160. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11

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    AMA Style

    Olaoluwa Samson Agbaje, Benedicta Ndidi Agu, Kenechukwu Chinenye Osakwe. Perception of Harmful Traditional Practices Among Women of Childbearing Age in Oru West Local Government Area, Imo State. Sci J Public Health. 2015;3(2):150-160. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11,
      author = {Olaoluwa Samson Agbaje and Benedicta Ndidi Agu and Kenechukwu Chinenye Osakwe},
      title = {Perception of Harmful Traditional Practices Among Women of Childbearing Age in Oru West Local Government Area, Imo State},
      journal = {Science Journal of Public Health},
      volume = {3},
      number = {2},
      pages = {150-160},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20150302.11},
      abstract = {Harmful traditional practices pose severe health risks to girls and women. Women’s perception of harmful traditional practices may assist in their eradication or perpetuate them. There is paucity of research on perception of harmful traditional practices among women in Oru West LGA, Imo State. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. The study population comprised 31,838 registered women of child bearing age who registered for ANCs from January, 2014 to September, 2014 in Oru West LGA, Imo State at the time of study. A sample of 384 women of childbearing age was used for the study. The multistage sampling procedure was adopted to select the sample. The instrument for data collection was a structured Questionnaire on Perception of Harmful Traditional Practices among Women. The questionnaire was validated by three experts. Reliability co-efficient of the instrument was 0.81. Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 20). The results showed that 49.3 per cent of women perceived identified traditional practices as harmful to women. Age of women had influence on perceived harmful traditional practices while no significant difference was found in the perception of harmful traditional practices based on women’s level of education. This study envisages that harmful traditional practices are prevalent in different cultural backgrounds in Nigeria with attendant health risks for girls and women. Potential interventions include: Public health promotion activities such as advocacy, economic empowerment and capacity building programmes for women and girls particularly in rural communities.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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    T1  - Perception of Harmful Traditional Practices Among Women of Childbearing Age in Oru West Local Government Area, Imo State
    AU  - Olaoluwa Samson Agbaje
    AU  - Benedicta Ndidi Agu
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    AB  - Harmful traditional practices pose severe health risks to girls and women. Women’s perception of harmful traditional practices may assist in their eradication or perpetuate them. There is paucity of research on perception of harmful traditional practices among women in Oru West LGA, Imo State. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted for the study. The study population comprised 31,838 registered women of child bearing age who registered for ANCs from January, 2014 to September, 2014 in Oru West LGA, Imo State at the time of study. A sample of 384 women of childbearing age was used for the study. The multistage sampling procedure was adopted to select the sample. The instrument for data collection was a structured Questionnaire on Perception of Harmful Traditional Practices among Women. The questionnaire was validated by three experts. Reliability co-efficient of the instrument was 0.81. Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 20). The results showed that 49.3 per cent of women perceived identified traditional practices as harmful to women. Age of women had influence on perceived harmful traditional practices while no significant difference was found in the perception of harmful traditional practices based on women’s level of education. This study envisages that harmful traditional practices are prevalent in different cultural backgrounds in Nigeria with attendant health risks for girls and women. Potential interventions include: Public health promotion activities such as advocacy, economic empowerment and capacity building programmes for women and girls particularly in rural communities.
    VL  - 3
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Author Information
  • Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Madonna University Elele, Rivers State, Nigeria

  • Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Madonna University Elele, Rivers State, Nigeria

  • Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Madonna University Elele, Rivers State, Nigeria

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