Reproductive Health Beliefs and Practices of College Age Qatari Women: A Qualitative Study
- To understand the reproductive health beliefs of College Age Qatari women
- To describe reproductive health practices of College Age Qatari women
- To identify implications to improve reproductive health knowledge of College Age Qatari women
Design: A qualitative design was used.
Setting: Focus groups were conducted at six different universities in Qatar.
Patients/Participants: Qatari women attending college, ages 18 to 25 years, were asked to participate in this study.
Methods: Six focus groups were conducted. Each focus group consisted of 6-8 Qatari women. Collected data was transcribed and translated from Arabic to English. Verification and validation of the transcribed and translated data was conducted prior to entering it the NVivo 8 software to prepare for data analysis.
Results: The results of this study indicate that Family, especially the mother, plays a primary role in educating young women about areas related to puberty, childbearing and childrearing followed by older sister(s) and female cousins. Participants expressed lack of satisfaction with amount and type of information provided to them by their family. In addition, the majority of the participants reported disappointment in the role Qatari schools played in educating them about their reproductive health. Recommendations were made by the participants to improve knowledge level of Qatari women in the area of reproductive health.
Conclusion/Implications for nursing practice: There is an obvious lack of the knowledge and misunderstandings regarding reproductive health among Qatari women. Recommendations regarding better educating young women such as conducting education sessions for the mothers in the community and through the media, providing young women with in-depth reproductive education in the school, and conducting awareness campaigns were made based on the participants’ responses.
Keywords: Women, Qatar, Reproductive Health; Health Education.
