Relying on Visiting Foreign Doctors for Fistula Repair: The Profile of Women Attending Fistula Repair Surgery in Somalia

Table 1

Characteristics of study participants.

Variables	Frequency	%
	Marital status
Married	51	63
Divorced/widowed	30	37
Education
Primary/secondary	14	17.3
No formal education	66	81.5
Occupation
No	66	81.5
Yes	13	16
Place of residence
Government controlled	21	25.9
Intermittent conflict	20	24.7
Controlled by Al-Shabaab	40	49.4
Age at marriage
>18	13	16
≤18	58	71.6
Type of marriage
By choice	46	57
Arranged	17	21
Forced	17	21
Age of first pregnancy
>18	25	30.0
≤18	53	65.4
Type of fistula
Vesicovaginal fistula	71	87.7
Rectovaginal fistula	7	8.6
The pregnancy in which fistula developed
First pregnancy	30	37
Second pregnancy	10	12.3
Third or above	41	51
Antenatal care at least once
Yes	46	56.8
No	35	43.2
Person who attended the labor
Health personnel	29	35.8
Traditional birth attendant	47	58
Female genital mutilation (FGM)
Not cut	4	4.9
Sunna (the mildest form of FGM or type 1)	13	16
Pharaonic (infibulation)	76.5	78.5
Reported cause of fistula
Obstetric complications	57	70.4
Iatrogenic factors	24	29.6
Number of surgeries
One surgery	57	70.4
Two or over	24	29.6
Number of years having a fistula
≤1 yrs	45	55.6
1.1–3 yrs	19	23.5
≥3 yrs	17	21
Did a fistula affect your ability to work?
Yes	54	66.7
No	25	31
How did having a fistula affect your social life?
Did not affect it much	50	61.7
I was divorced	19	23.5
My friends and relatives abandoned me	9	11.1
Experienced barriers to fistula treatment
Lack of money	27	33.3
Lack of health facility that performed fistula surgery	27	33.3
Lack of money combined with no health facility	15	18.5
Others	7	8.6