https://doi.org/10.4081/uij.2010.e2

Perception and attitude of obstetric fistula patients about their condition: a report from the Regional Hospital Maroua, Cameroon

Vol. 24 No. 2-3 (2010)
Submitted: 3 October 2010
Accepted: 13 December 2010
Published: 3 February 2011
Obstetric fistula, perception, attitude, Maroua, Cameroon
Abstract Views: 522
PDF: 237
HTML: 1640
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Pierre Marie Tebeu
pmtebeu@yahoo.fr
Regional Hospital, Maroua, Cameroon.
Charles-Henry Rochat
Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research, Switzerland.
Jean Marie Kasia
University Hospitals, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Thérèse Delvaux
Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium, Belgium.
Background. Obstetric fistula results in a continuous leakage of urine or feces through the vagina. The social consequences of obstetric fistula are severe, with affected women often ostracized from the community, divorced, abandoned and remaining childless. Objective. The general objective of this study was to analyze the perception and attitude of obstetric fistula patients treated at the Regional Hospital of Maroua, Cameroon. Design and Methods. This is a case series study of 42 obstetric fistula patients at the Regional Hospital of Maroua, Cameroon. After confirmation of the diagnosis of obstetric fistula, the patients were invited to participate to a survey prior to the surgical procedure, from May 2005 to August 2007. Results. Thirty-two percent of patients (13/41) said that they used to isolate themselves. Fifteen percent of patients (6/41) cited suicide as a solution for their fistula problem. Among the 29 patients who had never been operated before, 12 (41%) declared that this was due to a lack of financing means; eight (28%) cited the lack of fistula treatment services; seven (24%) said that this fistula was recent and 2 (7%) declared that they did not consult before. Conclusion. Obstetric fistula patients have a very negative perception about their condition. It is strongly recommended to improve the accessibility to maternal health program in order to prevent and manage the obstetric fistula in Far North Cameroon.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

Supporting Agencies

Hospital

How to Cite

Tebeu, P. M., Rochat, C.-H., Kasia, J. M., & Delvaux, T. (2011). Perception and attitude of obstetric fistula patients about their condition: a report from the Regional Hospital Maroua, Cameroon. Urogynaecologia, 24(2-3), e2. https://doi.org/10.4081/uij.2010.e2

PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.

An Open Access Publication is one that meets the following two conditions:

  1. the author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
  2. a complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
  2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.

Similar Articles

1 2 3 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.