Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Mothers towards Female Genital Mutilation in South West Shoa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Female genital mutilation is a long held tradition in the society of Ethiopia. It has significant drawbacks leading women of all age to different forms of morbidity and mortality. Assessment of KAP of mothers of child bearing age is an important measure towards the movement of discharging this long held tradition from the society. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers of child bearing age towards FGM in Obi koji Kebele, Wolisso woreda South, West Shoa zone, September 2009. Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from July 18 to August 09/ 2009 in Oromia region, South West Shoa zone, Wolisso woreda, Obikoji Kebele. A total of 384 sampled mothers were interviewed using a face to face interview. A systematic sampling technique was used to select the sampled households. The data processing was made by entering coded variables accordingly in to a computer SPSS version 16 and obtained the corresponding frequency counts for each variable. Finally, analysis was made by interpretation of frequencies, tables and graphs. Chi-square test was used to determine statistical association between variables. Results: Three hundred twenty four (84.4%) of the mothers responded that FGM can lead to a health problem, while 58(15.1%) of the mothers said that FGM does not lead to any health problem. Among the mothers who know the possible problems that could occur as a complication of FGM 128(39.5%) responded that the problem occurs immediately after the procedure (bleeding) and during child birth. Among respondents 370(96.4%) claimed that the practice is abandoned by law and is punishable, while 12(3.1%) of the mothers responded it has no legal provision. Three hundred thirty five (87.2%) of respondents do not want their daughters to be circumcised and need to avoid FGM in the future, and 49(12.8%) want to continue with FGM. Maternal education has very significant association with mothers’ knowledge, attitude and practice about FGM with p-value of 0.000, 0.005 and 0.000, respectively. Mothers who had access to different kinds of mass media were more likely found having good knowledge, attitude and practice than mothers who had no access to any kind of mass media (p=0.001 for each). Maternal age was another variable which has very significant association with knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers with p-value of 0.001, 0.021 and 0.000, respectively. This study showed the magnitude of FGM to be 63.7%. Conclusion: This study showed that maternal education, access to different kinds of mass media and maternal age have significant effect on mothers’ knowledge, attitude and practice about FGM.