The support of male health professionals to their wives on pregnancy, gynecologic examinations and breast health controls

Introduction and Aim: Screening tests and examinations committed on regular basis have a great importance on protection and sustainment of women health. Clinical pregnancy examinations have a crucial role on allowing pregnancy processes to continue without any complications and delivering a healthy birth and protecting maternal and infant health care, gynecologic examinations are crucial on detecting sexually transmitted diseases, gynecologic sicknesses and tumors. Breast examinations have a great importance on the evaluation of breast tumors which have high mortality rates. A healthy family structure is based on the ground of couples supporting one another whenever they require. Married couples receiving spousal support have higher martial adjustment and martial satisfaction, stronger coping mechanisms for the problems, low possibility for having depression and having higher rates for positive thinking. In this study, the main intention is to research the effects of the male health professionals –who are acknowledged on importance of screening- on women's health screening, their status of presence within the examinations next to their wives and the support they give to have these examinations. Materials and methods: The sample of the study consist of 176 married male health professionals admitted to participate the study voluntarily and working at the GATA Haydarpasa Training Hospital, Istanbul as doctor, medical technician and nursing staffs. A data gathering form, prepared by the researcher is used for gathering the data. Data were evaluated in SPSS 20.0 program, descriptive statistical analyses (number, percent) Pearson Chi-Square Analysis with %95 trust interval, p<0.05 meaning level. Results: The research showed that; %69.9 of the male health professionals made their wives' reproductive health controls at the organisation where they work, %83 of them prefer acquaintance medical doctor for their wives' health controls. %57.4 of the male health professionals were accompanied by their wives on their reproductive health controls and it is detected that %93 of these wives could speak with their husbands on their reproductive health problems. The knowledge and the educational status about pregnancy, gynecologic and breast examinations were detected high in doctor spouses, those with high income levels and those working at goverment institutions. It was conducted that as the age of wives are increasing, the education status on pregnancy, gynecologic and breast examinations were decreasing. Also detected was that recently married participant wives ratio on education status on pregnancy were higher than the other groups. Talking about pregnancy, gynecologic and breast examinations with their wives were determined high in the group of doctor participants, on the other hand was lower in the group of low incomed participants. The spousal ability to talk about pregnancy and gynecological examinations were identified as decreasing parallel to the increasing age of the wives. It was determined that medical technicians could talk more about breast and gynecological examinations with their wives. The participants above 40 years of age are conducted to be talking less about pregnancy and gynecological examinations with their wives. Talking about breast examination among couples was detected higher on recently married couples and found low on the low incomed participant group. The presence of the participants on the examinations of their wives was found lower in participant groups with low income. The ratio of the moral support level on pregnancy, gynecologic and breast examinations was detected high in the medical technician group and the 30-39 age group of participants. It has been determined that women who receive the most support from the spouse for pregnancy and gynecological examination are in the 30-39 age group. Conclusion and recommendations: It is proposed to develop hospital policies to ensure that providing the spousal support when it's needed for women during the medical procedures. It also advised, to organize educational trainings on the importance of spousal support to men and especially to male health professionals, and to conduct this study in a wider range of groups and to cover both genders. Key words: Health professionals, Pregnancy examination, Gynecologic examination, Breast examination, Spousal support