**10. How do we address cultural practices with adverse health consequences?**

Female genital mutilation (FGM) was declared a public health concern due to the widespread practice of the culture and, the huge number of girls and women whose physical, psychological, and reproductive health have been adversely affected [2]. The international collaborative response to the practice involved the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The modality for the concerted efforts to stamp out FGM includes [1]:


Though the sustained and collaborative efforts resulted in reduced prevalence of the cultural practice, research revealed that if the communities that practice FGM themselves decide to abandon the cultural practice, FGM will be quickly eradicated [2].

So, how then do we get communities to be aware of the health consequences of aspects of their culture that have adverse consequences on health? I propose a multi-dimensional, sustained and motivational approach; similar to the motivational interviewing used medically to influence changes in individual behaviors that have undesirable health consequence [8].

This approach requires identification of influential individuals and stakeholders in the community and developing a relationship of respect and mutual trust in these identified people. Then, without being overtly critical of their cultural practice, they can be made aware of the health impact of the practice using subtle methods such as drama, movies and carefully prepared literature [7]. When the influential individuals and stakeholders are motivated to appreciate the harmful effects of the cultural practice, they may then be involved in peer influence of others in their

**105**

**Author details**

Botswana

Radiance Ogundipe

*Cultural Practices and Health Consequences: Health or Habits, the Choice Is Ours*

communities. This will require careful and meticulous documentation of the health consequences of the cultural practice. The process of presenting the documented health consequences have to be very well planned, gradual and packaged in neutral

It should be expected that motivating a change in a cultural practice that has been held and believed in by a community for decades or centuries would require tact, patience and sustained, multidimensional, collaborative effort. It may be several years before any appreciable change is achieved but nevertheless, it is expedient

Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Botswana,

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

\*Address all correspondence to: docradiance@gmail.com

provided the original work is properly cited.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89778*

non-offensive ways.

**11. Conclusion**

to start the change process.

The author declares no conflict of interest.

**Conflict of interest**

*Cultural Practices and Health Consequences: Health or Habits, the Choice Is Ours DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89778*

communities. This will require careful and meticulous documentation of the health consequences of the cultural practice. The process of presenting the documented health consequences have to be very well planned, gradual and packaged in neutral non-offensive ways.
