Study on Relationship between Reproductive Tract Infections and Personal Hygiene Behaviors among Vulnerable Married Women in Shanghai

Objective:To understand the influence of personal hygiene behaviors on reproductive tract infections (RTIs) and to provide evidence for the intervention among married women at childbearing age Methods:A total of 1 631 married women in 60 residence neighborhoods from 4 streets and 2 stagnant enterprises were selected by multistage cluster random sampling and interviewed face-to-face through questionnaires, laboratory tests assay and gynecological examination. All data were analyzed by SAS 8.2. Results:The positive detection rates of five target pathogens, trichomonas vaginalis, candida albicans, G.vaginalis, chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae, in the study were 3.04%, 5.04%, 1.52%, 6.68%, and 0.12%, respectively. Personal hygiene practices and sexual behaviors among married women in the study were good in general. The vast majority of women (98.77%) rinsed their vulvae every day and more than half of the women (53.03%) took bath every day. In terms of the prevalence of endogenous infection, there were statistical differences between women who had different frequencies of rinsing their vulvae and taking bath; and for the prevalence of sexually transmitted infection, there were significant differences between women whose husband had different frequency of washing their external genital organs before sexual intercourses each time. The mostly adopted contraceptive methods among women ranked by frequency were intra-uterine devices (IUD) (68.69%), male condom (16.69%) and safe period (6.20%), among which male condom could prevent sexually transmitted infections. Multiple logistic regression analyses indicated that the frequency of taking bath, the husband washing his external genital organ before sexual intercourse and the age of marriage were the influencing factors of RTIs, too. Conclusion:It is very urgent that health educational intervention of RTIs among married women be conducted and especially the knowledge on condom's double effects on contraception and prevention of RTIs be disseminated to urge women to practice hygiene behavior to achieve the aim of preventing RTIs.

Factors Affecting Depression among Married Women Living in Urban Squatter Settlements of Karachi, Pakistan

Background: Depression is one of the growing public health concerns among women worldwide. This is one of the most under-recognized and under-treated mental illnesses worldwide. Women of developing countries are inexplicably affecting with depression. Purpose: The purpose of study is to assess the prevalence and associative factors of depression among women of aged 20 to 40 years living in urban squatter settlements of Karachi, Pakistan. The identification of all the potential determinants will potentially help in formulating preventive strategies in order to decline the prevalence of depression among women and improve the wellbeing of women. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional survey was employed among women living in Reta Plot and Kala Board communities of Karachi, Pakistan. Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) was used to measure depression. Systematic sampling was used to recruit 636 married women. Cox proportional hazard was run to compute prevalence ratios and their 95% confidence interval. Results: Our study estimated 33.3% of depression among study participants. The current study showed that age, possession of own vehicle, years of schooling and recent deaths in family were significantly associated with depression. Conclusion: This research was a bold step to address the issue of increasing rate of depression among Pakistani population. Our study results can convince policy makers to extend mental health support to women by improving accessibility of services. Recommendation: Our study recommends that the women of our society should be encouraged for attaining education. This study also recommends that at primary health care setting, every health professional should be trained to screen the depression. Moreover, the results of our study can also encourage policy makers to expand mental health support services for women.

Analysis of unintended pregnancy and influencing factors among married women in China

Unintended pregnancy often ends with induced abortion,an outcome that affects a woman’s physical and mental health and consumes social resources.A national fertility survey conducted by the former National Health and Family Planning Com-mission in 2017,gathered data on pregnancies among married women aged 15-49 to analyze the changing circumstances of such pregnancies and the factors that influ-ence their occurrence.The analysis found that the incidence of unintended pregnan-cies among married women in China was 42.4‰in 2017,and that such pregnancies accounted for 22.9%of all pregnancies in China for the years 2010-2017.Of all abortions,91.9%were used to terminate unintended pregnancies,and of unintended pregnancies,67.1%ended with induced abortions.The incidence of unintended pregnancy and that of induced abortion to terminate the unintended pregnancy were higher among women living in an urban rather than a rural area,having previously given birth to a boy,having a large number of children,being at the older end of their childbearing years,or having a shorter interpregnancy interval.Only 37.3%of women chose long-term contraceptive methods after an induced abortion caused by an unintended pregnancy;their sense of self-protection was not strong.It is neces-sary to strengthen education and advocacy,enhance women’s awareness of the pro-tection contraceptives offer,and improve the quality of and access to contraceptive services to reduce the incidence of unintended pregnancy,and reduce the incidence of induced abortion to terminate unintended pregnancy.

Contraceptive Use and Method Choice at Initial Sex among Married Reproductive Women

Objective To investigate whether the contraceptives were used and how effective the contraceptives were at the initial sex among reproductive women Data & Methods Data employed in this paper were derived from 'The national survey on population and reproductive health in 1997', launched by State Family Planning Commission of China(SFPCC). This paper used only a part of the collected data, namely initial sex of married reproductive women. Results Only 6.45 percent of married reproductive women used contraceptives at their initial sex. Most contraceptive methods used at initial sex were condom, oral contraceptives and rhythm. Intention of pregnancy, forgetting orignorance of using contraceptive were main reasons for not using contraceptives at initial sex. The married reproductive women with lower proportion of using contraceptives at initial sex were of the following characteristics: living in rural area, aged, with lower education or husband of lower education level, not taking courses for newly married couple, not having heard of HIV/AIDs and with lower contraceptive knowledge marks. Contraceptives choice at initial sex among married reproductive women was associated with women's registered permanent residence, age, education level, contraceptive knowledge, initial marriage age, having taken courses for newly married, having heard of STDs or HIV/AIDs. Conclusion The key points of maternal and children care are reinforcing contraceptive knowledge education among the unmarried and newly married women, promoting contraceptive awareness and spreading knowledge to those who have no pregnant intention.

Analysis of Contraceptive Knowledge among Married Reproductive Women in China

To investigate how well the married reproductive women in China have the contraceptive knowledge and its influencing factors Data & Methods The data derived from “The national survey on population and reproductive health in 1997” executed by State Family Planning Commission (SFPC) were analyzed. Results It showed that the contraceptive knowledge of married reproductive women was poor in China. Only 5.9% of women got full mark (4 points) in the survey and 42.5% of them got zero. In this survey, married reproductive women got lower marks were those who were older, in rural area, with low education levels themselves and their husbands; with a non Han husband, later menarche onset and earlier marriage; who had never received gynecological examination, or courses for newly married. Conclusion Spreading contraceptive knowledge among married reproductive women should be one of the central missions of family planning services in future. The focus should be put on those women we mentioned above. Regular gynecological examinations should be carried out and the education for newly married people should be more efficient. When the courses of contraceptive knowledge are provided,both husband and wife should attend.