Factors influencing alcohol use among Myanmar young migrant workers in Thailand

Young migrant workers depict both vulnerability and resilience toward negative health outcomes. A deeper understanding of their needs provides healthcare providers the opportunities to help increase their positive health and well-being. This cross-sectional study examined alcohol use in documented young Myanmar migrants working in Thailand and the factors associated with alcohol consumption. Cooper’s Four-factor Model of Drinking Motives and the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping were used as guiding frameworks. The participants were 186 young migrant workers from migrant communities in a coastal province near Bangkok, Thailand. Interviews were used for data collection using demographic questionnaire and standardized measures of alcohol use, acculturative stress, depressive symptoms and self-esteem. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Results indicated that participants perceived themselves as having positive self-esteem, not currently experiencing discrimination or acculturative stress, and motivated to consume alcohol mainly for positive social interaction rather than for coping or enhancement of positive affect. Almost two thirds of participants reported consuming at least 1 alcoholic drink in the past 12 months. However, 92.5% of those were classified as low risk drinkers. Gender, length of stay, and drinking history predicted alcohol use. Our findings add further evidence that the significant differences across studies regarding migrants working in Thailand arise from differences in age, types of work, region in Thailand, registration status, length of stay, peer and community supports. As such, public health policies and programs and health services provided by community nurses related to alcohol use need to be tailored to specific regions within the country and to specific populations of migrant workers based on information from local empirical studies.