Factors influencing family planning practice among reproductive age married women in Hlaing Township, Myanmar.
OBJECTIVE
To study the factors that influence the family planning practice among married, reproductive age women in Hlaing Township, Myanmar.


METHODS
Cross-sectional survey research was conducted among 284 married, reproductive age women using stratified random sampling. The data were collected through questionnaire interviews during February and March 2012 and analyzed by frequency, percentage, Chi-square test, and multiple logistic regression.


RESULTS
The proportion of families practicing family planning was 74.7%, contraceptive injection being the most commonly used method. The factors influencing family planning practice were attitude towards family planning, 24-hour availability of family planning services, health worker support, and partner and friends support. The women with a positive attitude toward family planning practiced family planning 3.7 times more than women who had a negative attitude. If family planning services were available for 24 hours, then women would practice 3.4 times more than if they were not available for 24 hours. When women got fair to good support from health workers, they practiced 15.0 times more on family planning and 4.3 times more who got fair to good support from partners and friends than women who got low support.


CONCLUSIONS
The factors influencing family planning practice of married, reproductive age women were attitude toward family planning, 24-hour availability of family planning services, health worker support, and partner and friends support. The findings suggest that empowerment of health workers, training of volunteers, pharmacists and contraceptive drug providers, encouraging inter-spousal communication, and peer support, as well as an integrated approach to primary health care in order to target different populations to change women's attitudes on family planning, could increase family planning practice among Myanmar women.
Myo Min
MM
Lwin
Chokchai
C
Munsawaengsub
Sutham
S
Nanthamongkokchai
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003268:Contraception Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D005193:Family Planning Services; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008393:Marriage; D008875:Middle Aged; D002052:Myanmar; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires