Traditional uvulectomy, a common practice in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Practice of Traditional Uvulectomy and Associated Factors Among Mothers of Under Five Years Children in Sokoto State, Nigeria.

“…Age at which TU was done in this study is in tandem with an earlier study by Abdullahi et al ( 5) that reported that for most of the children that had TU in their study, it was done within the first 7 days of life and were in the age range 1-21 days of life, similarly, Alebachew et al (18) reported that most of the TU in their study was performed before one week of life, this gave the impression that tradition is probably an important factor for this practice, also it reinforces the fact that in most cases TU are done as a tradition for preventive measures (2), while in a few of the cases in this study, it was done at 1-5 months (1.6%) and greater than 5 months (1.6%) of age respectively, while another study reported that most (68.8%) of the children had TU at an age range of 0-12 months (2). Kambale et al (17) In this study, reasons for TU agrees with the findings of other studies that reported cultural reasons in most (77.8%) of the respondents and prevention of sore throat. Similarly, in a previous study done in Eritrea the commonest reasons for TU was as a result of culture (60.3%), followed by throat problems, to prevent respiratory infections, prevent death, to relieve vomiting and to 7 relieve swallowing and feeding problems, another study reported prevention of sore throat (57.1%) as the commonest problem, followed by family tradition (23.8%) and cough in 9,6% of the respondents (5), similarly, report from Ethiopia showed that the commonest reason for TU was no modern medicine(79.0%), fear of recurrence (31.2%) and cultural habit (25.3%) (18).…”

“…The mortality rate was 1.5% in this study, a higher mortality rate (11.9%) following TU was reported by Kambale et al (17) and the factors associated with mortality in their study were HIV infection and acute malnutrition which were not assessed in this study; it was equally discovered by Abdullahi et al (5) in the same study location where the mortality rate following TU was 9.5% among 21 neonates hospitalised presenting as emergencies, the mortalities in their study was attributed to septicaemia, the mortality in their study may be higher due to the fact that this present study is a community based study restricted to only residents of the state, unlike the Abdullahi et al (5) study been a hospital based study the patients might have come from neighbouring states and countries with complications following TU, It was equally discovered in the Ajibade et al (2) study that the mortality rate was 11.3% following TU, this is higher than what was found in this study. This is not surprising because the commonest complication in their study was bleeding in most of the children which may explain the high mortality, unlike in our study in which the commonest complication was fever followed by bleeding.…”

“…Similarly, in a previous study done in Eritrea the commonest reasons for TU was as a result of culture (60.3%), followed by throat problems, to prevent respiratory infections, prevent death, to relieve vomiting and to 7 relieve swallowing and feeding problems, another study reported prevention of sore throat (57.1%) as the commonest problem, followed by family tradition (23.8%) and cough in 9,6% of the respondents (5), similarly, report from Ethiopia showed that the commonest reason for TU was no modern medicine(79.0%), fear of recurrence (31.2%) and cultural habit (25.3%) (18). However, the findings of this study differs with the findings of a previous study by Mboneko et al (14) that reported the main reason for TU in their study in most of the children was cough (32.8%), followed by recurrent sore throat (33.2%), other reasons were tonsillitis (1%) and only 0.3% were due to cultural reasons and the findings of Kambale et al that reported the main reason for TU in their study was fever (50.0%), vomiting (15.8%) and refusal to suck in 12.4% (17). The main reason mentioned by respondents for TU in in Axum in Ethiopia study was to prevent swelling, pus and rupture of the uvula which can lead to child death in 68.5% of the respondents, other reasons reported from their study were no better medical cure (12.9%) and to prevent sore throat by 12.8% of the respondents (20).…”

“…However, the findings of this study differs from the findings of a previous study by Mboneko and Fabian (15) that reported that the main reason for TU in their study in most of the children was cough (32.8%), followed by recurrent sore throat (33.2%); other reasons were tonsillitis ((1%) and only 0.3% were due to cultural reasons. Kambale et al (17) reported that the main reason for TU in their study was fever (50.0%), vomiting (15.8%) and refusal to suck in 12.4%. The main reason mentioned by respondents for TU in a study done in Axum, Ethiopia were to prevent swelling, pus and rupture of the uvula which could lead to child death in 68.5% of the respondents, other reasons reported from their study were no better cure in modern medicine (12.9%) and to prevent sore throat by 12.8% of the respondents (20).…”

“…There is a total of 3,666,999 million people in Sokoto based on 2006 census (15), with a projected population of 5,675,488 people in 2019, the number of women of child bearing age is 1,204,397 and total number children under five years is 1,135,098 (15). This was a cross sectional study carried out from January to The minimum sample size was calculated to be 291 using Fisher's formula for descriptive studies (16), but 320 study participants were recruited for the study, an 18.7% prevalence regarding practice of TU from a previous study was used (17), a precision level of 5%, and a response rate of 80% was anticipated. The eligible study participants were selected using multistage sampling technique.…”