Abstract

Didem Arslantas1 *, Hatice Karabagli2 and Filiz Koc1

The objective of the study was to identify the vaginal douching habits and the factors that would have a connection with this practice in women from Eskisehir Province in Turkey. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted from 1 May to 30 June, 2005. In present study, any sampling technique was not used. The subjects were women belonging to the 15 - 49 age groups who were admitted to No. 2 Family Planning Center and Sultandere Primary Health Care Center. A survey containing such questions about the socio -demographic and reproductive characteristics was conducted on these women via a face-to-face interview method. Among the statistical tests, chisquare test and logistic regression analysis were utilized. A total number of 503 women with an average age of 33.18 ± 7.50 were attended at the health center. Vaginal douching was performed in 47.7% women and the most common the method was cleansing (66.6%) and post-intercourse (71.8%). The information about these methods was obtained mostly from their mothers (31.6%). In accordance with the results obtained from the study, the vaginal douching practice is a widespread conventional attitude among women and should be given the necessary importance. It was concluded that it is necessary to provide health education for women who state that they get information concerning the practice mostly from their mothers and this wrong attitude change needs to be corrected. Since vaginal lavage is directly linked with low education levels and the state of unemployment, it is resolved that such measures should be taken to increase the socio-economic levels of women. It is also concluded that special importance should be attached to the health education of the primary health care profession concerning the vaginal lavage.