Female genital mutilation: trends, economic burden of delay and basis for public health interventions
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Date
2024-04
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central Ltd
Abstract
The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is a health and social problem. Millions of girls and women have undergone FGM or will soon, and more information is needed to effectively reduce the practice. The aim of this research is to provide an overview of the FGM trendlines, the inequality of its prevalence, and the economic burden. The findings shed light on 30-year trends and the impact of the pandemic on planned efforts to reduce FGM which helps with public health interventions. Temporal trend analysis, and graphical analysis were used to assess the change and inequality over the last 30 years. We included 27 countries in which FGM is prevalent. We calculated the extra economic burden of delayed interventions to reduce FGM like COVID-19. For the 27 countries analyzed for temporal trendlines, 13 countries showed no change over time while 14 had decreasing trends. Among the 14, nine countries, Uganda, Togo, Ghana, Benin, Kenya, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Chad, and Ethiopia had high year-decrease (CAGR - 1.01 and - 10.26) while five, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Gambia, Djibouti, and Mali had low year-decrease (CAGR>-1 and < 0). Among these five are the highest FGM prevalence similar distribution regardless the wealth quintiles or residence. There is an economic burden of delay or non-decline of FGM that could be averted.
Description
Keywords
Female genital mutilation, Sustainable development goals, Effective interventions, Economic burden of delay, Economic burden of non-abandonment, Harmful practices
Citation
Cordova-Pozo, Kathya, Hisham Hussein Imam Abdalla, and Ann-Beth Moller. 'Female Genital Mutilation: Trends, Economic Burden of Delay and Basis for Public Health Interventions', International Journal for Equity in Health, vol. 23/no. 1, (2024), pp. 73-73.