Determinants of adolescent fertility in Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Worldwide, adolescents suffer from a disproportionate share of reproductive health problem. Throughout the world, over 14 million adolescents aged 15-19 years give birth annually. The purpose of this study was to assess the level and identify proximate and other determinants of adolescent fertility in Ethiopia. Methods: Raw data collected from all part of the country using stratified cluster sampling method by the Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey 2005 (EDHS-2005) was used. After the data for adolescents aged from 15 to 19 years were extracted from the large data set, Multivariate logistic regression model was applied to identify sociodemographic and economic determinants whereas Bongaarts model was used to determine proximate determinants fertility. Results: Of the 3,266 adolescent women, 443 (13.6%) had given birth at least once prior to the survey and 133 (4.1%) were pregnant. Of the 443 adolescents who had at least given birth, the majority (72.7%) had one child while about a quarter (23.2%) had 2 live births and the rest 1.0% gave four live births with a mean number of child ever born of 1.33±0.6. The major factors associated with adolescent fertility were age, educational status, place of residence, employment, marriage, contraceptive use and postpartum infecundability. The odds for increased adolescent fertility was significantly higher in early adolescents (AOR=7.6; 95% CI=6.0 to 9.9), had lower education (AOR=6.7; 95%CI=4.1 to10.9), among rural teens (AOR=3.6; 95%CI=1.9 to 6.9) and currently not working (AOR=1.7; 95%CI= 1.3 to 2.2) than their counterparts. The observed fertility rate of 0.52 children per woman obtained from Bongaarts model of fertility indicated about 1.98 births per woman were averted due to non-marriage, delayed marriage, contraceptive use and postpartum infecundability. Conclusion: Since adolescent fertility is felt to be a problem, concerted efforts are needed to empower adolescents to fight early marriage, promote education and encourage the utilization of family planning targeting the rural teenagers.

Determinants of High Fertility among Ever Married Women in Enderta District, Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia

“…This might be explained by the fact that women with early birth have many years remaining to stop child bearing or to reach the age when reproduction ends. This finding is similar with previous reports from Africa [14,[23][24][25][26][27].…”

“…The District is bordered from east, north, south, and west by Afar region, KilleteAwulaelo Woreda, Hintalo-wajirat, Saharti-Samire Woreda and Degua-Temben Woreda respectively. The number of women aged 15-49 years was 23.5% (25,086) of the total population [12]. Regarding the health care service, it had six health centers and thirteen health posts both providing maternal and child health care service.…”

Determinants of Adolescent Fertility among Rural Women of Ethiopia

“…From the descriptive part of this study it is observed that 85.6 percent of adolescent rural women had not given birth and another 14.4 percent had given birth, at the time of the survey. [7] reported that the proportion of teenagers that had given birth at least once prior to the survey at the time of interview were 13.6%.…”

“…12 percent of women aged 15 -19 have already started childbearing; 10 percent have had a live birth, and 2 percent are pregnant with their first child [6]. The study suggested that teenagers whose age was between 18 and 19 years were about eight times more likely to be fertile than the younger ones [7]. As the age increases, the risk of exposure to pregnancy and childbearing also increases, because of higher probability of getting sexual relation and marriage.…”

Factors affecting the HIV/AIDS epidemic: An ecological analysis of global data

“…Throughout the world, over 14 million adolescents aged 15-19 years give births annually 35 . It is estimated that, in the last decade, over 58 million girls were married before the age of 18 years; of which, 15 million were 10-14 years old.…”