Factors affecting contraceptive utilization in Myanmar youth migrants in Samutsakhon Province, Thailand.

Abstract

In present, Myanmar youths have to face several barriers in accessing reproductive health care services for many reasons and especially migrant youths suffer more health problems and inaccessibility to health care services compared with older migrants. Therefore, this study aims to identify the factors affecting the contraceptive utilization among Myanmar youth migrants in Samutsakhon Province, Thailand. The study was a cross-sectional descriptive study among 372 Myanmar youth migrants between 15- 24 years of age residing in Samutsakhon Province, Thailand. Data was collected by using self-administered questionarries with convenient sampling method between May 2018 to June 2018. Analysis of the variables was done using univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis at 95% confidence level. The contraceptive utilization rate among Myanmar youth migrants in this study was 59.7% in which married youths accounted for 66.9% and unmarried youths for 46.5%.Moreover,higher percentage of traditional contraceptive methods use(21.5%) was found in this study that were considered to be ineffective methods. Most commonly used contraception among sexually active youth migrants were OC pills, injections, male condom and withdrawal method. We found that education (P value=0.000), marital status (P value=0.033), ever heard of contraception (P value=0.008), level of knowledge (P value=0.001), discussion with partners (P value=0.006) and peer pressure to use contraception (P value=0.001) were significantly associated with current use of contraception in multi-variate analysis. In addition, among health system factors, availability of contraceptive information (P value=0.037), health education materials (P value=0.004), easy availability in need (P value=0.000) and working or opening hours (P value=0.000) had significant associations with current use of contraception. Moreover, significant association was also found between waiting time responsiveness factor (P value=0.001) and current use of contraception in multivariate-analysis in this study. This study indicated that low level of contraceptive utilization rate among Myanmar youth migrants and poor level of contraceptive knowledge indicating the needs of health education and information among Myanmar youth migrants in Samutsakhon Province. Providing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health knowledge, education and youth friendly health care services were critical needs to youth migrants who were vulnerable to sexual and reproductive health risks.