Living and working environment, and factors associated with the safe sex behavior and sexually transmitted infection of Myanmar migrant workers in Muang district, Ranong province, Thailand

Abstract

A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on March 2010 with the objective of assessing the living and working environment and factor associated with the safe sexual behavior and health status related to unsafe sexual behavior of Myanmar migrant workers in Muang District, Ranong Province, Thailand. Multi-stage purposive sampling method was used for the study and 406 households were recruited in the survey. For data analysis, chi-square test was used. Respondents aged between 19 and 50 years from each household were selected and interviewed by using self-administered questionnaires. Female and male respondents are selected half by half (female 203 and male 203). Out of 406 respondents, 41.4% is single, 50.7% are married and 5.7% and 2.2% are divorced and widowed. Their major jobs are Factory worker and fisherman. Among the 406 respondents, half (51.0%) live in dawn town and over 50% (205) respondents live with roommates. For working environment, over half (224) respondents work 10-14 hours per day. There is significant relationship between gender (P-value 0.001), type of job (p-value 0.001), job needs to travel (0.001) duration of stay in Thailand (0.001) and safe sex behavior. In 203 male respondents, 109(52.7%) had sex with sex workers and only 36.2% use condom when have sex with sex worker. There is significant relationship between gender (p-value 0.006), marital status (p-value 0.041), duration of stay in Thailand (p-value 0.001), working years(p-value 0.001), job location(pvalue-0.000), job needs to travel(p-value 0.001) and sexually transmitted infection. Health education and condom promotion programs are necessary for the migrant workers especially in fishermen group because this group has poor sex behavior and high prevalence of STI. Also health education program for sexually transmitted infections and provide more STI clinics are needed. 16.9% of total respondents had STI. In further study, other indicators to elicit more about the safe sex behavior of the females should be used as females think some issues are especially concern with male only. For more information about safe sex behavior, further study should not only focus on descriptive study but also point out for action research for prevention and control of it