Prevalence and Associated Factors of Traditional Uvulectomy: A Study Done Among Infants at University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, 2024

ABSTRACT Background Traditional uvulectomy remains a significant public health concern in Ethiopia. Despite multiple complications associated with this traditional malpractice like bleeding and infection transmission the practice continues. This traditional practice is more commonly performed on infants. This study provides evidence on the prevalence and associated factors of traditional uvulectomy. Objective The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of and associated factors for traditional uvulectomy among infants under 12 months of age who visited the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, 2024/2025. Method A hospital‐based cross‐sectional study was conducted among infants under 12 months of age who visited the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital from August 2024 to January 2025. A pretested, researcher‐administered questionnaire was used to interview caregivers and extract data from medical records. The data were collected using the Kobo Toolbox by two trained general practitioners and analyzed using STATA version 17 software. Binary and multivariable logistic regressions were employed to determine factors associated with traditional uvulectomy and the presence of multicollinearity was checked and no value more than 3 was there. The statistical association between dependent and independent variables was declared at p ‐value of ≤ 0.05. Results A total of 426 participants were included in this study, with ages ranging from 3 days to 12 months and a median age of 3 months (interquartile range [IQR] = 0.9–9 months). The prevalence of traditional uvulectomy was 69.7%. Among the participants, poor maternal knowledge and poor attitude were prevalent, accounting for 69.3% and 65.3%, respectively. Identified factors for traditional uvulectomy were: mothers with no postnatal counseling (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 3.08, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.65–5.73), mothers with poor attitude (AOR = 4.41, 95% CI: 1.87–8.96), and mothers with poor knowledge (AOR = 8.30, 95% CI: 3.70–18.61) toward traditional uvulectomy. The model had good performance, with a Hosmer‐Lemeshow goodness‐of‐fit test p ‐value of 0.236. Conclusion The prevalence of traditional uvulectomy was high. Lack of postnatal counseling about traditional uvulectomy, poor attitude, and poor knowledge were found to be independent contributing factors for traditional uvulectomy. Practicing comprehensive and consistent parental and postnatal health education and counseling about traditional uvulectomy is very important to overcome this malpractice.