Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Combined Oral Contraceptives (COCS) among Myanmar Migrant Married Women of Reproductive age at Ranong Province in Thdand

Abstract

Myanmar migrant population is dramatically increasing in Thailand since 2000. In this migrant population, women take large proportion. The increase in contraceptive practice reflects the growing desire of couples to have birth spacing and limit their family size. In recent decades, enormous strides have been made in the development of safer and more effective contraceptives, and in the provision of affordable and accessible family planning services. In this cross sectional study, the emphasis is on the combined oral contraceptives because combined oral contraceptives method is the most popular method among the modern contraceptives methods and second most common methods of choice among Myanmar migrant women in Ranong. This study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of combined oral contraceptive usage among Myanmar migrant married women of reproductive age at Ranong province in Thailand. The data was collected in Muang District in Ranong Province in February, 2010. 300 Myanmar migrant married women of reproductive age were asked by using structured questionnaire. This study resulted that the practice of combined oral contraceptives (COCs) usage was 50.4 % and the most common reasons why they preferred COCs were recommendation of friends and family planning workers. Nearly half of the respondents got COCs from drug stores. Over half of them had low level of knowledge while a few had high level of knowledge of COCs. 68.6 % of the respondents in this study had moderate attitude towards COCs. The practice of COCs among Myanmar migrant women was related with attitude towards COCs, age, occupation, number of living children, duration of stay in Thailand and distance away from the sources of COCs.