ATTITUDE TOWARDS HARMFUL CULTURAL PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPLICATION TO HEALTH AMONG INHABITANTS OF ELEME LGA, RIVERS STATE

ABSTRACT The focus of this study is to assess the attitude towards harmful cultural practices and their implication to health among inhabitants in eleme LGA, Rivers State. Three specific objectives and research questions were formulated to guide the study. The target population comprised of women of reproductive age from 18 years and above at the primary health center in the community. The researcher made use of a descriptive survey design using a self-designed questionnaire for data collection. The data was descriptively summarized with the use of frequency, percentages and tables. Findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents agreed that early marriage is still prevalent in the community (63%); that nutritional taboos still exist in the community (79%); that female circumcision is another serious harmful cultural practice with severe health implication (63%); and that widowhood practices are still inhumane and exist in the community (76%). The effects were shown to include profuse bleeding (85.2%), excessive bleeding (87.5%), low immunity (87.7%), vulnerable to Sexually Transmitted Diseases (86.6%) and emotional trauma (84.1%). From the findings, the measures include openly, individuals should condemn the negative cultural practices (65.9%), empowering women through education, income generation (80.9%), perpetrators of harmful cultural practices should be punished by legal action (68.8%), traditional rulers should enforce rules against harmful traditional practices in their communities (67.6%), the government should make these harmful practices illegal (67.3%), and church intervention (68.7%). Based on the findings, the study recommended that governments across all levels to enact and enforce laws that will prohibit some of the harmful cultural practices in Nigeria, while community leaders organize educative sessions to educate the public on the risks associated with these harmful cultural practices Keywords: attitudes, harmful cultural practices, health implication, women