Aasia Zamurrad, Mohammad Hamza Bajwa, Ramesh Kumar, Saima Hamid.
Reproductive health seeking behavior among 15-25 years aged married women living in slums of Islamabad, Pakistan.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;5(4):64-8.
Background: Reproductive health problems have posed a major burden on the health system of Pakistan, especially among women living in urban slum. An estimated 340 million new cases of RTIs emerge each year, with 151 million in Asia. Without early diagnosis and accurate therapy, their complications severely compromise women's health, fertility, infant health and survival. The objective of this study was to gauge the prevalence of reproductive health problems and subsequent health seeking behavior adopted by young married women of slums. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2012 by interviewing 210 young women, after taking their written consent, living in slums of Islamabad. A pretested, piloted and validated tool was used, after translating in the local language Urdu, by trained data collectors. All the women aged 15-25 with at least one child were included in the study. Results: Study reected that there is a wide diversity among the prevalence of different reproductive health problems in young female slum dwellers. The awareness of antenatal care was universal along with high utilization and an overall under utilization of post natal care was reported. Knowledge of contraception was high with low current usage. The use of traditional contraceptive methods was negligible. High prevalence of stillbirth and induced abortion as compared to the women of rest of the country was noticed. Area of residence of respondents, culture beliefs and enhanced accessibility to health services determined care seeking patterns for most of the prevalent reproductive health problems. Among individual characteristics of young women, autonomy and decision making power at the household signicantly shaped their reproductive health behavior. Age and educational level of the respondents and their spouses were found to be less inuential determinants. Conclusion: Study concluded that different reproductive problems like antenatal care, family planning, induced abortion and postnatal care are more prevalent among the young women living in slums of Islamabad. Key words: Reproductive health, Slums, Women health, Behavior, Health seeking.
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