Determinants of obstetric fistula among women in aged 15-49 years in Tooro region, Uganda

Abstract

The study assessed determinants of obstetric fistula among women aged 15-49 years using Uganda Demographic Healthy Survey 2016 data. Chi-square test statistics and complementary log-log regression were used in the analysis. A total of 1301 women were considered and a higher percentage of women were aged 20 to 39 years (66%), married or living with a partner (63%), living in rural areas (80%) and had attained only primary education (64%). A slightly higher percentage of women were from rich households (39%) and had given birth to a total one to three children (39%). For the women that given birth, 61% had attended ANC for four to six times and 61% were attended to or assisted by Nurse or Midwife while giving birth. With regard to fistula, 54% had ever heard about obstetric fistula whereas 4.4% had ever experienced obstetric fistula where 36% it started after delivering a baby. Over 75% that had experienced sought for treatment and 53% it stopped completely. At bivariate analysis, chi-square results showed that age, education level and total children ever born by a woman significantly determined one’s experience with obstetric fistula where a higher percentage of women were aged 40 to 49 years, those that had attained only primary and those that had given birth to over 6 children had experienced obstetric fistula as compared to other categories. At further analysis using complementary log-log regression, only education level and total children ever born by the woman were significantly associated with fistula experience among woman. Women that had attained primary education were more likely (OR = 4.7) to have experienced obstetric fistula as compared to those that had not attained formal education. However, this was in contrast with previous the findings and it`s highly attributed to less observations a result of considering specifically a particular region and also women that given birth to one to three and those with 7 and above were more likely (OR = 5.6) to experience fistula as compared to those that had not given birth to any child. The study recommends women to adopt family planning in order to reduce the number of pregnancies and deliveries which could put them at a high risk of obstetric fistula while giving birth. More so there is need for government and other stakeholders to educate women with regard to obstetric fistula especially the less educated ones in order to know the risk factors associated with obstetric fistula and how to prevent them