Role of internet use, mobile phone, media exposure and domestic migration on reproductive health service use in Bangladeshi married adolescents and young women

Anita Pickard; Md Irteja Islam; Md Sabbir Ahmed; Alexandra Martiniuk

doi:10.1371/journal.pgph.0002518

Role of internet use, mobile phone, media exposure and domestic migration on reproductive health service use in Bangladeshi married adolescents and young women

PLOS Glob Public Health. 2024 Mar 4;4(3):e0002518. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0002518. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Anita Pickard¹, Md Irteja Islam^{1

2

3}, Md Sabbir Ahmed^{4

5}, Alexandra Martiniuk^{1

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
² Research, Innovation and Grants, Spreeha Foundation, Gulshan 2, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
³ Centre for Health Research, The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland (QLD), Australia.
⁴ Department of Development Studies, Daffodil International University, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
⁶ Office of the Chief Scientist, The George Institute for Global Health, Newtown, New South Wales, Australia.
⁷ Dalla Lana School of Public Health, The University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

Numerous studies have identified factors that are associated with increased access to reproductive health services in lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). However, limited studies examined the influence of access to internet or a mobile phone, media exposure and domestic migration on reproductive health services use in LMICs like Bangladesh. This study investigated the role of such factors on the use of contraceptives, antenatal care (ANC) and postnatal care (PNC) by married adolescents and young women in Bangladesh and whether it was varied by area. Secondary data for 1665 married women aged 15-24 years, sourced from the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, were included in both bivariate analyses and logistic regression modelling to examine the role of access to internet and/or mobile phone, media exposure and domestic migration on the outcome variables (contraceptive, ANC and PNC). All regression models were controlled for age, wealth, education and number of existing children. Among all participants, 69.8% were aged 20-24 years and 85.6% lived in rural areas. Of the total sample, 67.5% used contraceptives, 75.7% utilised ANC and 48.7% accessed PNC. Domestic migration significantly increased contraceptive use, with women who had moved locally within the last five years 1.84 times more likely to use contraception than those who had never moved (95% CI: 1.41-2.41, p<0.001). Women with internet or mobile phone access were more likely to receive ANC (aOR: 1.57, 95% CI: 1.22-2.00, p<0.001) compared to those without internet/mobile phone access. Media exposure was found to increase the likelihood of receiving ANC in urban areas. No significant influence was found on the use of PNC. Internet/mobile-based platforms are promising avenues for public health messaging regarding ANC in Bangladeshi married adolescents and young women. Further research is required into determinants of PNC service use in low-resource settings.

Copyright: © 2024 Pickard et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Grants and funding

There was no grant for this specific research paper from any funding source in the public, private, or non-profit sectors. The MISC study is supported by the UNICEF and led by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) with approval from the government of Bangladesh. During this research, AM's salary was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia Investigator Grant 2021-current (#1195086). NHMRC had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.