Overall proportions of women reporting ever having had vaginal sex were lower for Mexican women residing in Mexico compared with Mexican women in the United States; however, the proportion reporting sexual onset (by age 15) was similar for the MxFLS sample and the Mexican immigrants among NSFG respondents (approximately 15% across all three groups) (table 2). The mean lifetime number of sexual partners was lower for MxFLS respondents than for those in the NSFG. Smaller proportions of women in Mexico reported ever and currently using hormonal methods and/or condoms relative to Mexican women residing in the United States. They reported higher levels of permanent method use currently, as well as of no method use during sex currently.

Within the sample, a smaller proportion of women who migrated had ever had vaginal sex, though this difference was attenuated with adjustment for age and socioeconomic indicators . We found no evidence for health selectivity with regard to contraceptive practices or sexual behaviors. Though parity was significantly lower and pregnancy intentions higher for Mexican women who migrated to the United States between 2002 and 2005 compared to Mexican nonmigrants, these differences were nonsignificant with adjustment for age.

Among NSFG respondents, though ever use of all four contraceptive method types varied between Mexican immigrant and U.S.-born women of Mexican descent, with generally lower levels of hormonal contraceptives and condoms and higher use of IUDs, when examining current method use choices, only differences in condom use were found. Mexican immigrant women reported a higher odds of condom use compared to U.S.-born women of Mexican descent. As expected based on previous research, sexual behaviors did vary between Mexican immigrant women and U.S.-born women of Mexican descent, with a pattern of decreased risk among immigrant women. For example, Mexican immigrants had more than an 80% decreased odds of reporting an early age of first vaginal sex compared to U.S.-born women of Mexican descent.

Conclusions

Given the expected growth in the Latino population in California and the disproportionate burden of sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy found among this group, understanding more about the reproductive health behaviors of migrants, both among youth who have immigrated to the United States and remain and among those who return to Mexico, remains critically important. Indeed, the health of the Latino immigrant population in California is likely to assume an increasingly important role in the health of the U.S. communities to which immigrants move. Likewise, the health of Mexican communities that experience migration is closely tied to the health of their populations that migrate. Our ability to prevent adverse reproductive health outcomes through well-targeted policies and programs will depend on a keen understanding of the characteristics of migration and the migrants themselves that shape underlying determinants of reproductive health risks.

Credits And More details: http://factsreports.revues.org/523