Журнал тропических болезней и общественного здравоохранения

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Factor Associated with Children Ever Born among Married Women in Ethiopia: Evidence from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey Data

Setegn Muche Fenta*, Shewayiref Geremew Gebremichael

Background: Children ever born are one of the main components that decide the population size, structure, and composition over time of any country. The average number of children born ever per woman in Ethiopia was 4.6 in 2016, which is higher than the average number of children ever born per woman in the world. This study aimed to estimate the magnitude and identify associated factors of children ever born for the country at large.

Method: Ethiopian Demography and Health Survey of 2016 data were accessed and used for the analysis. A total of 9602 married women were included in the analysis. Poisson and Negative Binomial models were used to identify determinant factors associated with the number of children ever born in Ethiopia.

Results: A total of 9,602 women were included in this study. About 90.6% of women have born at least one child, while the remaining 9.4% of women have never been born to a child in their lifetime. In addition, the overall mean number of children ever born per woman was 3.79 (95%CI; 3.74, 3.85). Rich wealth index (IRR=0.794; 95% CI: 0.685, 0.920), secondary and above education level of women (IRR=0.601; 95% CI: 0.569, 0.634), secondary and above education level of husbands’ (IRR=0.917; 95% CI: 0.880, 0.955), used current contraceptive methods(IRR=0.973, 95% CI: 0.948, 0.998), employed women(IRR=0.894, 95% CI: 0.840, 0.951) and late married women (IRR=0.853, 95% CI: 0.833, 0.874) associated with the lower number of children ever born. Large family (IRR=2.229; 95% CI: 2.167, 2.293), rural residence (IRR=1.062; 95% CI: 1.021, 1.104), lost at least one child (IRR=1.637; 95% CI: 1.602, 1.673), and exposed to mass media (IRR=1.032; 95% CI: 1.005, 1.060) associated with a higher number children ever born. Moreover, women living in the Afar, Amhara, Gambella and Dire Dawa regions had a smaller number of children ever born compared to the Tigray regions.

Conclusion: The number of children ever born is high in Ethiopia. Therefore, concerned governmental organizations improve awareness to the community on the risk of early marriage, encourage education, expand mass media and pay special attention to poor and rural women. Meanwhile, policies need to be implemented to encourage contraceptive use and breastfeeding practices among married women.