Abstract:
The main purpose of this cross sectional study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of women towards vesico vaginal fistula and determine factors associated to knowledge and attitude towards the occurrence of vesico vaginal fistula. A systematic random sampling was used to select 30 settlements from 321 settlements in Birnin Kebbi Local Government area of Kebbi State, Nigeria. There were a total of 380 women involved in this study. Data were collected by constructed questionnaire and analysed by percentage, mean, standard deviation and chi-square. Data was analysed by using level of significant at 0.05. A focus group discussion was carried out amongst women with and women without VVF to assess their knowledge and attitude towards vesico vaginal fistula and occurrence of VVF. The result showed that the prevalence of VVF was 9.5%. Women had low knowledge regarding vesico vaginal fistula 65.8%: While, they seemed to have moderate attitude towards the disease (60.8%). Chi-square test revealed that knowledge level found to be highly significant (p < 0.001) when compared with the knowledge level, attitude level was not found to be significant with the occurrence of VVF (p = 0.432). The result also indicates that women have less knowledge about preventive measures as compared with the risk factors, signs and symptoms. These indicate that there is inadequate awareness among women regarding vesico vaginal fistula. Therefore, there is need for more awareness programs regarding vesico vaginal fistula and also the need for wider research on community-based study in order to determine the actual level of incidence and prevalence.
