Harmful Traditional Practices of Umbilical Cord in Edaga Hamus Community, Asmara, Eritrea

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Table 1 Socio-Demographic Characteristics of the Mother

Characteristics	Category	%
Age	19–25	31.6%
	26–32	40.8%
	33–43	27.6%
Level of education	Illiterate	2.3%
	Primary	18.3%
	Secondary	58.9%
	Higher education	20.6%
Occupation	No job (housewife)	86.3%
	Employee	13.7%
Religion	Christian	85.1%
	Muslim	14.9%

Table 2 Umbilical Cord Care and Separation Time of the Infants

Umbilical Cord Care	Frequency	Percent	Cord Separation Time MEAN (5.82 ± 1.54 Days)
			Above Mean	Below Mean
Dry care method	148	84.5%	42	106
Antibiotics	9	5.1%	1	8
Herbal treatment	8	4.6%	2	6
Other specific	10	5.8%	7	3

Table 3 Practices Vs Infections

Practices		Does the Umbilical Cord Have Infection
		Yes	No
	Dry care method	26	122
	Antibiotics	2	7
	Herbal treatment	2	6
	Other specific	1	9
Total		31	144

Table 4 Other Specific Umbilical Cord Practices (N = 175)

Other Specific Practices Post Infections	Frequency	%
Dry care	126	72%
Vaseline	22	12.6%
Sesame	6	3.4%
Swab with boiled water	8	4.6%
Cow dung	1	0.6%
Vegetable oil	4	2.3%
Eye drop	5	2.9%
Herbal	3	1.7%

Note: Table 4 shows that cow dung was the least (at 0.6%) used practice by women in the study.

Table 5 Attitude of the Women Post Infection

Attitude of the Women on Infection	Infection of Umbilical Cord
	Yes	No
Depressed	13	0
Fear	15	1
Not affected	3	143
Total	31	144

Table 6 Bivariate Correlation of Independent Factors on the Type of Cord Care

Independent Variables		Dry Care	Practices	Pearson Correlation Coefficient	p value
Age	19–25	50	10	‒0.04	0.55
	26–32	65	13
	33–43	33	4
Educational level	Illiterate	3	1	‒0.07	0.30
	Primary	27	5
	Secondary	85	18
	Higher education	33	3
Mother’s occupation	No job (housewife)	127	24	‒0.05	0.46
	Employee	21	3
Who influenced you for practice	Myself	24	9	0.19	0.008
	Nurse	70	3
	Mother	42	12
	Sister	7	1
	Husband	3	0
Does the umbilical cord have an infection	Yes No	26 122	5 22	‒0.09	0.90
Number of ANC visits	0	5	1	0.03	0.67
	1	8	2
	2	15	1
	3	45	7
	4 and above	75	16