Perceived Reproductive Morbidity and Treatment Seeking Behavior among Ever Married Women in Siwa Oasis, Egypt. Perceived Reproductive Morbidity and Treatment Seeking Behavior among Ever Married Women In

Information about reproductive morbidity in developing countries is scanty and mainly based on information obtained from clinics or hospitals which are not usually reflecting the true magnitude of the disease burden. A cross-sectional study were conducted to assess the self-reported reproductive morbidity and the factors affecting it and to investigate the health seeking behavior among a sample of women in Siwa (Oasis), Egypt. A total of 340 ever-married women in the reproductive age group of 15 to 49 years were interviewed using a pre-designed questionnaire. About three quarters of women reported having any obstetric (72.6%) or any gynecological morbidity (75.6%). The most commonly reported obstetric problem was symptoms of severe anemia (43.8%), while symptoms of lower RTIs (51.2%) and UTIs (35%) were the commonest gynecological problems. Overall, 58.5% of participants had sought treatment for any morbidity with the majority had sought services of the public sector facility (80%). Regression analysis showed that education, age at first pregnancy and duration of marriage were the factors associated with women reports of any reproductive morbidity. The present results reveal a high prevalence of reported reproductive morbidity in Siwa, Egypt. Factors such as education, duration of marriage and women age at first pregnancy were associated with reported morbidity among the sampled women. This high reported rate in peripheral and remote areas needs to be explored further. [Ola A. Akl , Hala K. Ibrahim, Heba M. Mamdouh. Perceived reproductive morbidity and treatment seeking behavior among ever married women in Siwa Oasis, Egypt. Journal of American Science, 2011;7(6):749-756]. (ISSN:1545-0740). http://www.americanscience.org