Beyond Reproductive Health: Listening to Women About Their Health in Disadvantaged Beirut Neighborhoods

Abstract

In this article, we aim to contextualize gynecological problems within a broader health and social context, expanding the lens beyond reproductive health. Questionnaires were administered to 1,869 ever-married women aged 15 to 59 that included questions on living, general health, and gynecological problems. These questions were open-ended, allowing women to respond in their own words. Women reported a multitude of health problems, indicating competing priorities. Musculoskeletal complaints emerged as the most prevalent and most important health problem. One in four women reported a gynecological problem, mainly reproductive tract infections (RTIs), when asked directly. Selected quotes provide clues about the complex relationship between women's lives and health.

This paper was produced in the framework of a larger, interdisciplinary research project on Urban Health, coordinated by the Center for Research on Population and Health at the American University of Beirut, with generous support from the Wellcome Trust, Mellon Foundation, and Ford Foundation.

We acknowledge with appreciation the contribution of Rita Hamad, Dima Karam, and Hibah Osman in the preparation of this article. We especially thank the women from the communities studied who kindly volunteered to participate in the Urban Health research project.

Notes

In Arabic gynecological problems are literally amradh al-nisa or “women's diseases”; in common parlance, however, amradh al-nisa are understood to mean gynecological problems, not broader women's health concerns.

These items of the questionnaire are currently being analyzed and written up for other articles. A copy of the questionnaire can be obtained by writing to the first author.

The GHQ-12 is an instrument that is widely used in diverse cultural settings and has been validated in several studies in the Arab world (El-Rufaie & Daradkeh, 1996; Ghubash, Daradkeh, El-Rufaie, & Abou-Saleh, 2001; Jacob, Bhugra, & Mann, 1997), so it could be considered a better measure of women's psychological health than the self-reports.