Comparing women's reports with medical diagnoses of reproductive morbidity conditions in rural Egypt
Zurayk, H.; Khattab, H.; Younis, N.; Kamal, O.; el-Helw, M.
Studies in Family Planning 26(1): 14-21
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0039-3665 PMID: 7785064 DOI: 10.2307/2138047Document Number: 334732
The paper is based on a survey of a random sample of 509 ever-married non-pregnant women residing in two villages in the Giza Governorate of Egypt, each of whom responded to a questionnaire on symptoms of gynaecological conditions and then was accompanied to the village health centre for a gynaecological examination. A response rate of 91% was achieved. The paper focuses on reproductive tract infections and genital prolapse, highly prevalent conditions in the community. The women's reports of symptoms are compared with the medical diagnoses, using indicators of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and percentage of agreement. The findings show that women's reports of vaginal discharge agree moderately well with the physicians' observations but are not good predictors of the occurrence of reproductive tract infections. Women's reports of the symptoms of prolapse do not agree well with medical diagnoses of the condition. The findings are analysed, taking into account the social context of the lives of the women surveyed to arrive at conclusions as to how to improve ways of learning from women themselves about gynaecological problems in the community.