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Vaginal Douching Practices of Women in Eight Florida Panhandle Counties

2006; Elsevier BV; Volume: 35; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1552-6909.2006.00003.x

1552-6909

Barbara Hansen Cottrell,

Intimate Partner and Family Violence

Objective To document knowledge, beliefs, douching practices, prevalence of bacterial vaginosis, and preterm births in women who douche. Design Descriptive, cross-sectional nonexperimental design. Setting Six private midwifery/nurse practitioner offices and eight county health departments in the Florida panhandle. Participants Four hundred eighty-three English- or Spanish-speaking women aged 14 to 45 years. Methods Self-administered questionnaire about douching; medical record review. Main outcome measures Prevalence of douching, history of preterm labor, preterm births, and prevalence of bacterial vaginosis. Results Of 483 women, 76% had douched, 43% douched at least once per month, and 36% were unaware they should not douche. As determined by odds ratio, women who douched monthly were 2.5 times more likely to have a history of bacterial vaginosis than women who did not douche (p < .001), and women who douched weekly were 2.75 times more likely to have bacterial vaginosis (p= .004). Of 409 clients with medical records available, 32 had preterm births of which 69% had a history of bacterial vaginosis (x2= 4.5, df= 1, p= .034). Among women with preterm births who douched regularly prior to pregnancy (n= 14), 87% had a history of bacterial vaginosis (x2= 7.14, df= 1, p= .008). Conclusions Associations of douching with bacterial vaginosis and bacterial vaginosis with preterm labor were significant. Health care professionals should initiate discussions to discourage douching. JOGNN, 35, 24-33; 2006. DOI: 10.1111/J.1552-6909.2006.00003.x To document knowledge, beliefs, douching practices, prevalence of bacterial vaginosis, and preterm births in women who douche. Descriptive, cross-sectional nonexperimental design. Six private midwifery/nurse practitioner offices and eight county health departments in the Florida panhandle. Four hundred eighty-three English- or Spanish-speaking women aged 14 to 45 years. Self-administered questionnaire about douching; medical record review. Prevalence of douching, history of preterm labor, preterm births, and prevalence of bacterial vaginosis. Of 483 women, 76% had douched, 43% douched at least once per month, and 36% were unaware they should not douche. As determined by odds ratio, women who douched monthly were 2.5 times more likely to have a history of bacterial vaginosis than women who did not douche (p < .001), and women who douched weekly were 2.75 times more likely to have bacterial vaginosis (p= .004). Of 409 clients with medical records available, 32 had preterm births of which 69% had a history of bacterial vaginosis (x2= 4.5, df= 1, p= .034). Among women with preterm births who douched regularly prior to pregnancy (n= 14), 87% had a history of bacterial vaginosis (x2= 7.14, df= 1, p= .008). Associations of douching with bacterial vaginosis and bacterial vaginosis with preterm labor were significant. Health care professionals should initiate discussions to discourage douching. JOGNN, 35, 24-33; 2006. DOI: 10.1111/J.1552-6909.2006.00003.x