Women's Health Institute, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
Contraception. 2013 Oct;88(4):518-22. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2013.03.011. Epub 2013 Apr 1.
Previous studies performed outside of the US that examined contraceptive knowledge and beliefs in South Asian women identified significant barriers. Our study aimed to further understand these practices in this population residing in the US.
This cross-sectional study surveyed women of all ethnicities receiving health care from either of two ambulatory practices in New Jersey from October 2011 to November 2012. Using chi-squared testing, the frequencies of contraceptive outcomes between South Asians and non-South Asians were compared.
There were 42 South Asian respondents and 143 non-South Asian respondents. Our results show that South Asians are statistically significantly less likely to routinely use contraception and that gaps in contraceptive knowledge appear to stem from multiple barriers, including family opposition and pressure from spouse or in-laws to have children, cultural prohibitions, fear of side effects and misinformation, lack of education/knowledge about contraceptives and difficulty in accessing contraception. These gaps in contraceptive knowledge were also found to be multigenerational, despite higher levels of education generally seen in the South Asian population.
Clinicians caring for South Asian women should acknowledge both the barriers and the lack of contraceptive knowledge in this population and provide culturally competent family planning information to them during all women's health encounters.
此前在美国以外的地区进行的研究表明，南亚裔女性在避孕知识和观念方面存在显著障碍。我们的研究旨在进一步了解居住在美国的南亚裔人群的这些行为。
本横断面研究于 2011 年 10 月至 2012 年 11 月期间，对新泽西州两家门诊护理机构的所有族裔女性进行了调查。采用卡方检验比较了南亚裔和非南亚裔女性在避孕效果方面的差异。
共有 42 名南亚裔受访者和 143 名非南亚裔受访者。我们的研究结果表明，南亚裔女性常规使用避孕措施的比例明显较低，而且避孕知识方面的差距似乎源于多种障碍，包括来自家庭的反对、配偶或姻亲的生育压力、文化禁忌、对副作用和错误信息的担忧、对避孕措施缺乏教育/知识以及获得避孕措施的困难。尽管南亚裔人群的受教育程度通常较高，但这些避孕知识方面的差距也具有代际性。
照顾南亚裔女性的临床医生应该认识到该人群中存在的障碍和避孕知识的缺乏，并在所有女性健康就诊中为其提供具有文化适应性的计划生育信息。
