Knowledge, attitude and practice of Afghan refugee women residing in Zahedan about family planning

ABSTRACT

Considering the high number of Afghan refugees in Zahedan and the important issue of their life style, the present study was carried out to determine knowledge, attitude and practice of Afghan Refugee women residing in Zahedan about family planning. A sample of 397 married women was interviewed at their homes. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square, t-student and Kruskal Wallis tests by SPSS. Our findings indicated that there existed low marriage and pregnancy age and high rate of pregnancy and illiteracy among them. Most Afghan refugee women had knowledge about oral contraceptives and the most common contraception used by them was oral and injectable contraception. Forty eight and sixth percent were using no contraception, for which, intention to have more children, being pregnant and husband's disagreement were mentioned as main reasons. Unwanted pregnancy was reported by 20.4% with improper use of contraception as its main reason. They believed that having son in the family [51.8%] and early marriage of daughters [57.8%] are necessary. There was a significant relationship between knowledge, attitude, practice with literacy, husband's literacy, ethnicity, and their religion [P < 0.001]. Iranian health system presents health services to refugee Afghan women similar to Iranian women. It is necessary to continue those services and to provide effective training based on their changing needs