Health related quality of life of Myanmar migrant workers in Takuapa and Kuraburi Districts, Phang-nga Province, Thailand

Abstract

Health related health related quality of life of Myanmar migrant workers in two districts of Phangnga Province, Takuapa and Kuraburi, was explored by Short Form Health Survey 12 item (SF 12) for their health perception. The primary objective of this study was to assess health related health related quality of life of migrants’ age between 15 and 49 years old and then to explore the association between factors influencing health related health related quality of life. Phangnga province was selected purposively and the two districts were selected by cluster sampling method. Frequency, mean, percentage and standard deviation were utilized for descriptive analysis, whereas for analytical analysis, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were applied for test of association between factors influencing health related health related quality of life. The results showed that one-third of migrants’ self-perceived health status was good but nearly half of the respondents revealed that their health related quality of life was fair and poor. Female, the unregistered migrants, subjects who were feared of finance and of police’s arrest were discovered to higher mean rank of quality of life score by Mann-Whitney test (p=0.01, p=0.01, p=0.03 and p=0.03 respectively). When Kruskal-Wallis test was applied for test of association, it was found that married migrants, subjects who finished primary education, migrants who had more than 3 children staying with them, migrants who held pessimistic view on their personal security and subjects who had bad relationship with employer/supervisor at workplace had higher mean rank of quality of life score (p=0.01). Further studies need to be carried out for qualitative information because the concept of health related quality of life is abstract and has different meanings under diverse socio-cultural contexts.