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

Olaoluwa Samson Agbaje; Benedicta Ndidi Agu; Kenechukwu Chinenye Osakwe

doi:doi:10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11

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

Olaoluwa Samson Agbaje, Benedicta Ndidi Agu, Kenechukwu Chinenye Osakwe

Published in Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 3, Issue 2)

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), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Perception, Traditional Practices, Discrimination, Culture, Advocacy

References

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[23]	Onyekuru BU. Obnoxious cultural practices associated with bereavement among people of the South East geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies, 2011; 2 (5): 357
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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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TY - JOUR
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
AU - Kenechukwu Chinenye Osakwe
Y1 - 2015/02/09
PY - 2015
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11
DO - 10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11
T2 - Science Journal of Public Health
JF - Science Journal of Public Health
JO - Science Journal of Public Health
SP - 150
EP - 160
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2328-7950
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20150302.11
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
IS - 2
ER -

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Author Information

Olaoluwa Samson Agbaje

Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Madonna University Elele, Rivers State, Nigeria
Benedicta Ndidi Agu

Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Madonna University Elele, Rivers State, Nigeria
Kenechukwu Chinenye Osakwe

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

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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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