Vaginal Douching Behavior among Young Adult Women and the Perceived Adverse Health Effects | Chapter 03 | Emerging Research in Medical Sciences Vol. 1
Aim: Several health belief models suggest that health risk perception could enhance behavioral modification to reduce lifestyle-related risks. Perceived health risks associated with vaginal douching (VD), propensity to douche and effects on douching behaviors were assessed in a cross-sectional survey of 1,463 female undergraduates, aged 18 to 35 years, randomly selected in a tertiary institution between 2011 and 2012. Methodology: A 3-section semi-structured socio-demographic questionnaire on female genital tract hygiene practice was used for data collection. We conducted logistic regression analysis to test for association between douching and perceived health risk. Results: The overall prevalence of VD was 79.2%. Most douchers (79.8%) lacked knowledge of risks associated with VD, 78.3% had misbeliefs about VD, 76.0% accepted the practice, 50.6% would have stopped if they had known the associated risks and 56.4% expressed fear of genital tract infections if they stop...