Setting and Participants

The pilot study was conducted at a clinic located in South Central Los Angeles that provides primary and reproductive healthcare to predominantly African-American and Latina women: 59% African-American, 23% Latina, 13% Asian, 4% other and 1% white. The clinic serves over 3,600 female patients annually. Previous researchers have found that douching behavior varies by race and ethnicity, a potential confounder. Therefore, we restricted our sample to include only African-American women to remove the confounding effects of race and ethnicity and to improve the precision of our estimates. Eligible participants also had to be >18 years of age.

Upon arrival, patients registered at the intake desk and completed a medical history form with the intake clerk. Two trained interviewers called patients sequentially from the register list and, in a private enclosed room, assessed eligibility and willingness to participate. Participants were interviewed before seeing a clinician and were compensated $5 for their time. UCLA Office for the Protection of Research Subjects approved the study. Don’t be left without your medication get dutasteride hair loss cheaper online.

Interview

From June to September 2001, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 115 women of African descent (88% were born in the United States); refusal rate was 5% (6/121). After giving written informed consent, participants were asked about their sociodemographic characteristics, previous STD diagnoses (e.g., chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, trichomoniasis, HIV/AIDS, pubic lice, PID), family history of cancer, recent Pap exams, current frequency and most recent episode of vaginal douching, and current reasons and solutions used for vaginal douching. Survey questions were informed by a literature review of PubMed and Psyclnfo databases using keywords “douche”, “African-Americans”, “attitudes” and “behavior”. In addition, we met with groups of the clinic staff to develop the questionnaire and pilot-test the instrument prior to submission to the institutional review board. The clinic staff and the clinic’s quality assurance committee approved the content of the questionnaire before implementation.

Analysis

Descriptive statistics and distribution of responses were computed for each question. Pearson Chi­squared analyses were used to determine demographic correlates of women who have ever douched and women who douche >2 times per week. To assess the consistency of our findings, we further stratified the douching frequency response into three mutually exclusive categories: women who douche >2 times per week, women who douche two times per month and women who douche <2 times per month. We used Pearson Chi-squared analyses to examine the association between selected behavioral and demographic characteristics among women who douched >2 times per week and women who douche two times per month compared with women who douche <2 times per month. Characteristics with a P value of <0.20 were entered into separate logistic regression models that controlled for age. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed. Medication you can afford revatio online