Inconsistent Reporting of Female Genital Cutting Status in Northern Ghana: Explanatory Factors and Analytical Consequences (2003)
This study is a Descriptive research regarding All FGM/C with the following characteristics:
Author(s): Elizabeth F. Jackson,Patricia Akweongo,Evelyn Sakeah,Abraham Hodgson,Rofina Asuru,James F. Phillips
FGM/C Type(s): All
Health area of focus: None.
Objective: To examines the determinants of inconsistent self-reporting of circumcision status by comparing women’s self-reported status from survey responses in 1995 with repeat-interview re- sponses in 2000 for a sample population living in a rural area of northern Ghana,where the practice of female genital cutting has been the subject of legislation and informational campaigns.
Study Population: Women aged 15 to 49
Findings: The self-reported circumcision status of women interviewed in 1995 was compared with the status they reported when they were interviewed again in 2000 after the government began enforcing a law banning the practice and public information campaigns against it were launched. In all,13 percent of respondents who reported in 1995 that they had been circumcised stated that they had not been circumcised in the 2000 reinterview; this inconsistency reached 50 percent for the youngest age group. Analysis shows that women who said they had not been circumcised are significantly younger,more likely to be educated,and less likely to practice traditional religion than are women who reported that they were circumcised. Women’s denial of having experienced female genital cutting occurred in a setting where social support for the practice is eroding,interventions are taking place,laws against the practice are being enforced,and informational campaigns have been launched. Denial of being circumcised in women’s self-reports may spuriously inflate estimates of the impact of such interventions. Results of this analysis attested to the need for greater attention to methodological problems in research on female genital cutting.
Geographical coverage
Region(s):Western Africa
Country(ies):Ghana