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. 2017 Jul 27;17(1):54.
doi: 10.1186/s12905-017-0413-z.

Transvaginal Sonography: perception and attitude of Nigerian women

Mark C Okeji  1 , Kennedy K Agwuna  2 , Chika N Ihudiebube-Splendor  3 , Iliyasu Y Izge  4 , Kelechi K Ekuma  5 , Jennifer O Emeter  5
Affiliations

Transvaginal Sonography: perception and attitude of Nigerian women

Mark C Okeji et al. BMC Womens Health. .

Abstract

Background: To assess the attitude to and perception of transvaginal sonography (TVS) among Nigerian women of mixed educational status in order to ascertain factors that may prevent them from submitting to TVS when recommended.

Methods: A Cross-sectional survey was adopted for the study. In all, one missionary, one government and eight private hospitals were enlisted. The instruments for data collection were visual analogue scale (VAS), to ascertain patients' pain/discomfort experience, and a researcher-developed semi-structured questionnaire. The level of pain/discomfort on the VAS was categorized into four on a scale of 100. The categories were: 0-5 (no pain), 6-40 (mild pain), 41-74 (moderate pain), and 75-100 (severe pain).

Results: Majority (50.6%) of the respondents who attained secondary education had positive attitude to TVS. Also majority of the respondents (63.1%) preferred female sonographers. Majority of the respondents (54.1%) perceived TVS as not embarrassing, 78% did not consider it stressful, 96.9% reported that the sonographers were professional, 46.7% felt that a chaperon was needed, 98.4% reported there were enough privacy and 84.7% reported they needed prior information. Most of the respondents (82%) were willing to consent to TVS in future, 90.5% reported no pain, 8.6% reported mild pain/discomfort and 0.9% reported moderate pain.

Conclusions: Majority of our respondents had positive attitude to TVS and were willing to consent to TVS in future, hence it was acceptable to them. It was however observed that acceptability increased with increasing academic status.

Keywords: Attitude; Nigeria; Perception; Transvaginal sonography; Women.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethics approval and consent to participate was obtained from the Research and Ethics Committee of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu. Informed consent was obtained from each of the participants.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Respondents perception of pain/discomfort on the VAS
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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