Abstract
Objective: This study was carried out to investigate the genital hygiene practices of women aged 18-49 working greenhouse agriculture.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out with 167 women working in greenhouse agriculture in Kumluca district center between July and September 2019. An information form and Genital Hygiene Behavior Scale were used for collecting data; descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney-U test and Kruskal Wallis variance analysis and logistic regression analysis were used in the analysis.
Results: In the study, women received a total score of 84.10 ± 7.36 from the Genital Hygiene Behavior Scale. In the study, it was found that the scores differed in general and sub-dimensions of the scale and showed statistical significance according to the presence of social security, educational status, educational status of the spouse and the monthly income of the family (p<0.05, p<0.001). The general hygiene behaviors sub-dimension score and total scale score differed according to the Family Planning (FP) use status of women (p<0.05). According to the material used in the vaginal douche, there is a statistically significant general hygiene behavior and overall scale (p<0.05). Although the scores of the women using male and 40 female shared toilets in the greenhouse were high in all sub-dimensions and overall scale, there was a statistically significant difference in general hygiene behaviors and overall score of the scale (p<0.05). General hygiene behaviors and abnormal finding awareness subscales and general score of the scale of women who previous information on genital infections were statistically significant (p<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that pre-toilet handwashing was associated with a history of genital infection 45 (OR=0.202, p<0.05).
Conclusion: It is seen that women’ genital hygiene behaviors are positive. These women who are disadvantaged in terms of occupation and living place should be trained by primary health care workers within the scope of preventive health services.
