Gynecology and obstetrics patients' attitudes towards body privacy: A cross-sectional-descriptive study

It is extremely important for healthcare professionals to protect patients' privacy during diagnosis and treatment processes related to gynecology and obstetrics and to warn them in case patients' privacy is violated. This study was aimed at determining attitudes of female patients having obstetrics examination towards privacy and raising their awareness of privacy.

This cross-sectional-descriptive study was conducted with 410 patients who presented to the gynecology and obstetrics outpatient clinic of a university hospital. The survey form consisted of two forms: The descriptive characteristics questionnaire and the body privacy scale for gynecology and obstetrics (BPSGO). Frequency tables, descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis H-test, and Bonferroni correction were used in the analysis of the data.

The mean age of the participants was 36.75 ± 11.18 years. Of these, 38.0% were in the age group of ≥40 years, 84.0% were married, 66.8% presented to the gynecology clinic, and 58.3% had negative emotions before they had gynecologic examination. Ethics and privacy subscale scores of the single participants were significantly higher than were those of the married participants.

It was determined that privacy was affected by cultural characteristics, belief systems and personal values, and that most of the participants were likely to experience negative emotions. It is important to raise health professionals' awareness of privacy by drawing their attention to the value of privacy which is among ethical values in their education and to support the better functioning of legal regulations on this issue.