Family planning: knowledge, attitudes and practice survey in Zigone, Myanmar

Perhaps the most important finding of this Zigone KAP survey was that about 50.3% (95% CI 46.2-54.2) of the married women of reproductive age were currently practicing modern methods of contraception. For a country like Myanmar, where the government has until recently favored a pronatalist population policy, this is indeed surprising. This 30 cluster survey, designed to determine the prevalence of various family planning methods adopted, as well as knowledge and attitudes, among villagers in rural Myanmar, covered a sample of 600 married women of reproductive age in Zigone township which has a population of 70,000. The survey results showed a high awareness of specific contraceptive methods among the target group and the ever-use rate of birth spacing methods was about 54% (95% CI 50.7-58.7). The most used method was oral contraceptives (64.6% of all users), followed by injectable contraceptives (32.3%). There was a small number of IUD users (1.1%), use of a permanent method (sterilization) was extremely low (0.3%). Seven out of ten married women of reproductive age did not want more children and one out of two women in this group were current users of contraception. Therefore a certain proportion of user was probably using these (mainly temporary) methods to terminate fertility rather than for birth spacing purposes. Moreover, only 63% of those wanting children, but not in the next 12 months, were using a contraceptive method. These findings demonstrated that there was a large group of potential contraceptive users who were currently not using a method. In an attempt to investigate the factor hindering the non-use of contraceptives when needed, the women were divided, according to their contraceptive practice, into two groups. Logistic regression was employed to compare the characteristics of women in the user and nonuser groups. After adjusting for covariates, it was found that economic group and number of living children had a positive effective effect on contraceptive use, while age and number of children under three years of age had a negative effect. The survey also found that about 48% of the contraceptive users were obtaining their supplies from the private sector and another 40% received supplies from government health officers. The reference by respondents to "health staff", as the source of supply, was assumed to be health staff working in their private practice, since the government's current health program does not cover the provision of contraceptives.