Female genital mutilation and safer sex negotiation among women in sexual unions in sub-Saharan Africa: Analysis of demographic and health survey data.

Autor: Aboagye RG; School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.; Department of Family and Community Health, Fred N. Binka School of Public Health, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Ghana., Ahinkorah BO; School of Clinical Medicine, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, Australia.; School of Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.; REMS Consultancy Services Limited, Sekondi-Takoradi, Western Region, Ghana., Seidu AA; REMS Consultancy Services Limited, Sekondi-Takoradi, Western Region, Ghana.; College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Services, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia.; Centre for Gender and Advocacy, Takoradi Technical University, Takoradi, Ghana., Frimpong JB; Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.; Department of Kinesiology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, United States of America., Adu C; Department of Health Promotion, Education and Disability Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.; Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia., Hagan JE Jr; Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.; Neurocognition and Action-Biomechanics-Research Group, Faculty of Psychology and Sport Sciences, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany., Ahmed SAE; School of Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia., Yaya S; School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.; The George Institute for Global Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2024 May 17; Vol. 19 (5), pp. e0299034. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 May 17 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0299034
Abstrakt: Background: The practice of female genital mutilation is associated with harmful social norms promoting violence against girls and women. Various studies have been conducted to examine the prevalence of female genital mutilation and its associated factors. However, there has been limited studies conducted to assess the association between female genital mutilation and markers of women's autonomy, such as their ability to negotiate for safer sex. In this study, we examined the association between female genital mutilation and women's ability to negotiate for safer sex in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
Methods: We pooled data from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted from 2010 to 2020. Data from a sample of 50,337 currently married and cohabiting women from eleven sub-Saharan African countries were included in the study. A multilevel binary logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between female genital mutilation and women's ability to refuse sex and ask their partners to use condom. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to present the findings of the logistic regression analysis. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05.
Results: Female genital mutilation was performed on 56.1% of women included in our study. The highest and lowest prevalence of female genital mutilation were found among women from Guinea (96.3%) and Togo (6.9%), respectively. We found that women who had undergone female genital mutilation were less likely to refuse sex from their partners (aOR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.86, 0.96) and ask their partners to use condoms (aOR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.78, 0.86) compared to those who had not undergone female genital mutilation.
Conclusion: Female genital mutilation hinders women's ability to negotiate for safer sex. It is necessary to implement health education and promotion interventions (e.g., decision making skills) that assist women who have experienced female genital mutilation to negotiate for safer sex. These interventions are crucial to enhance sexual health outcomes for these women. Further, strict enforcement of policies and laws aimed at eradicating the practice of female genital mutilation are encouraged to help contribute to the improvement of women's reproductive health.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Aboagye et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz:
Nepřihlášeným uživatelům se plný text nezobrazuje