Gynecological Problems, Health Behaviors and Health Promotion among Women: Does it Matters in Pakistan?

Introduction: Poor socioeconomic status, lower education background, social stigma associated with sharing gynecological issues, paucity of early detection program, limited access to health care facilities, less number of qualified gynecologists and lack of technical equipment in Pakistan are the major factors affecting diagnosis, adequate control and prevention of gynecological problems in Pakistan. The importance of health promoting lifestyle and quality of life has been recognized in developed world for more than two decades, however, this concept is still in infancy in developing countries including Pakistan. Health promoting behavior especially among women is an unexplored area of research in Pakistan.

Objective: The present study was designed to assess health promoting lifestyle behavior among women with different gynecological problems in Pakistan.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used. A pre validated questionnaires i.e. HPLP-II was self-administered to a sample of 383 women with different gynecological problems selected using convenience sampling technique. After data collection, data was cleaned, coded and entered in SPSS. Non-parametric tests Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney tests (p ≥ 0.05) were performed to find out the differences among different variables.

Results: Significant difference (p ≥ 0.05) in health promoting life style behavior was observed among patients of gynecological problems residing in different setting, having different marital status, different types of gynecological problem and educational background. Patients with gynecological problem residing in rural settings, married, who had ovary cyst and more educated had comparatively improved health promoting lifestyle behavior.

Conclusion: The results of this study revealed low health-promoting behaviors among women with gynecologic problems in Pakistan. Furthermore, the women’s score of spiritual growth, stress management, and interpersonal relations was higher than that of nutrition and physical activity. Therefore, it appears necessary to perform health education programs emphasizing nutrition and physical activities and establish counseling centers for teaching the health-promoting behaviors to the women for improving their overall quality of life.