Cultural taboos and low sexual and reproductive health literacy among university students in Magway city, Myanmar.

IF 1.8 3区 医学 Q2 FAMILY STUDIES
Hnin Aye Kyu, Rassamee Chotipanvithayakul, Edward Braddon McNeil, Nyan Lin Thu
{"title":"Cultural taboos and low sexual and reproductive health literacy among university students in Magway city, Myanmar.","authors":"Hnin Aye Kyu, Rassamee Chotipanvithayakul, Edward Braddon McNeil, Nyan Lin Thu","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2420704","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>University students in Myanmar experience a high prevalence of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) problems including unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. These are compounded by pervasive cultural taboos surrounding sex and sexuality. Sexual and reproductive health literacy is crucial to addressing these problems. Four focus group discussions with 33 university students revealed how cultural taboos act as barriers across five SRH literacy subdomains: accessing, comprehending, criticising and applying SRH information, and communicating with healthcare providers. Students primarily relied on online health information rather than face-to-face discussions. Many students considered SRH information to be 'dirty' and experienced feelings of shame, guilt and fear of being blamed or disrespected while seeking healthcare. They therefore hesitated to visit healthcare providers and sought SRH services only in urgent medical situations. Additionally, all SRH literacy subdomains were influenced by cultural taboos surrounding sex: societal denial towards youth premarital sex, and the perception of sexual matters as embarrassing and inappropriate. Advocacy is needed to promote positive societal attitudes towards sexual matters and youth premarital sex, signalling the value of culturally tailored digital SRH literacy interventions using vernacular language. Healthcare providers should offer non-judgemental youth-centred services to promote SRH literacy among students.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":" ","pages":"1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2024.2420704","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"FAMILY STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

University students in Myanmar experience a high prevalence of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) problems including unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. These are compounded by pervasive cultural taboos surrounding sex and sexuality. Sexual and reproductive health literacy is crucial to addressing these problems. Four focus group discussions with 33 university students revealed how cultural taboos act as barriers across five SRH literacy subdomains: accessing, comprehending, criticising and applying SRH information, and communicating with healthcare providers. Students primarily relied on online health information rather than face-to-face discussions. Many students considered SRH information to be 'dirty' and experienced feelings of shame, guilt and fear of being blamed or disrespected while seeking healthcare. They therefore hesitated to visit healthcare providers and sought SRH services only in urgent medical situations. Additionally, all SRH literacy subdomains were influenced by cultural taboos surrounding sex: societal denial towards youth premarital sex, and the perception of sexual matters as embarrassing and inappropriate. Advocacy is needed to promote positive societal attitudes towards sexual matters and youth premarital sex, signalling the value of culturally tailored digital SRH literacy interventions using vernacular language. Healthcare providers should offer non-judgemental youth-centred services to promote SRH literacy among students.

缅甸马圭市大学生的文化禁忌与性健康和生殖健康知识水平低下。
缅甸大学生的性健康和生殖健康(SRH)问题非常普遍,包括意外怀孕和性传播感染。而围绕性和性的文化禁忌又使这些问题更加严重。性与生殖健康知识的普及对于解决这些问题至关重要。与 33 名大学生进行的四次焦点小组讨论揭示了文化禁忌是如何成为五个性与生殖健康素养子领域的障碍的:获取、理解、批评和应用性与生殖健康信息,以及与医疗保健提供者沟通。学生们主要依靠在线健康信息,而不是面对面的讨论。许多学生认为性健康和生殖健康信息是 "肮脏的",在寻求医疗保健服务时会感到羞耻、内疚,害怕受到指责或不尊重。因此,他们对去医疗机构就诊犹豫不决,只有在紧急医疗情况下才寻求性健康和生殖健康服务。此外,所有性健康和生殖健康素养分领域都受到围绕性的文化禁忌的影响:社会对青年婚前性行为的否认,以及认为性问题是令人尴尬和不恰当的。有必要进行宣传,以促进社会对性问题和青年婚前性行为的积极态度,这也表明了使用本地语言进行符合文化特点的数字性健康和生殖健康扫盲干预的价值。医疗保健提供者应提供以青年为中心的非评判性服务,以促进学生对性健康和生殖健康的认识。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
CiteScore
4.60
自引率
4.50%
发文量
80
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信