Women’s circumcision in Minab : Prevalence, knowledge, attitude

Background: Women’s circumcision is one of the health problems in some societies. That is excision and removal of different sections of women’s genitalia based on cultural aims or non-medical reasons , which are done in four different grades. Objective: This study was performed to determine the knowledge and attitude of women in fertility age in Minab about women’s circumcision in the year 2002. Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study , 400 women in Minab health centers were selected as samples by non-accidental and objective-oriented sampling. Needed data were gathered by a researcher-made questionnaire to assess knowledge and attitude through a semi-structured interview and also by checklist. Data were analyzed by T-test , chi-square and one-sided variance analysis. Findings: Prevalence of circumcision were 70% . Between them 87.4% were grade one and 12.6% were grade two. Mean and standard deviation of knowledge number in circumcized group were 2.1 1.6 and in uncircumcized group were 3.05 1.7 . There were no significant difference between two groups (P<0.001). Mean and standard deviation of attitude number in circumcized and uncircumcized groups were 36.5 10.9 and 47.7 9.0 respectively. There were no significant difference between two groups (P<0.001). There were significant positive relationship between knowledge and circumcision grade (P<0.001) and between attitude and circumcision grade (P<0.001). Conclusion: The knowledge level in majority of samples were weak and their attitude were »No Idea « . Results indicates the necessity for teaching to the people in the region and also it shows the importance of health centers in increasing knowledge and changing the attitudes