Department of Population Studies, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.
Population studies, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
PLoS One. 2023 Feb 24;18(2):e0281997. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281997. eCollection 2023.
Event histories such as marriage and birth have been used to study fertility behavior of women. Understanding the timing of these events provide insight to reproductive patterns of the population. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the timing of marriage and durations of birth intervals and their associated factors, and and to examine their effects on the current fertility among women in Dabat health and demographic surveillance system site, Northwest Ethiopia.
A community based cross-sectional survey was carried out in the beginning of 2020 among 1649 women of reproductive age group. Data were collected using structured and interviewer administered questionnaire. The parametric survival analysis was employed to estimate the relationships among socioeconomic and demographic variables with outcome variables, the timing of age at first marriage and duration of birth intervals.
This study confirmed that median age at first marriage was the lowest estimated at 15 years which was below the national and regional average. The result of the study also revealed that married women waited almost a median duration of three years for their first, second, third and fourth child which was increased to nearly four years for three years preceding the survey. The parametric survival analysis showed woman's education, occupation, and current age were the predictors of age at first marriage. divorce experience, women empowerment and marriage cohort were the determinant factors of first birth interval; women education, child death, and ideal number of children were the predictors of second and third birth intervals; and media exposure and child death experience of women were predictors of fourth birth interval.
The study indicated that median age at first marriage was the lowest though the successive birth intervals were longer. The survival analysis identified women's education, occupation, child death and ideal number of children affected the timing of age at first marriage and duration of birth intervals. Hence, encouraging women for higher education and giving opportunity to women in employments may contribute for delaying age at first marriage and increasing the duration of birth intervals which in turn slowing down the fertility of women.
婚姻和生育等事件史已被用于研究女性的生育行为。了解这些事件的时间安排可以深入了解人口的生殖模式。因此，本研究旨在评估婚姻时间、生育间隔持续时间及其相关因素，并研究它们对埃塞俄比亚西北部达巴特健康和人口监测系统站点妇女当前生育率的影响。
本研究于 2020 年初在一个有生育能力的 1649 名妇女中进行了一项基于社区的横断面调查。数据是使用结构化和访谈者管理的问卷收集的。参数生存分析用于评估社会经济和人口统计学变量与结局变量（初婚年龄和生育间隔持续时间）之间的关系。
本研究证实，初婚年龄中位数最低，估计为 15 岁，低于全国和地区平均水平。研究结果还表明，已婚妇女在第一次、第二次、第三次和第四次生育前等待了几乎三年的中位数时间，而在调查前三年，这一时间增加到近四年。参数生存分析表明，妇女的教育、职业和当前年龄是初婚年龄的预测因素。离婚经历、妇女赋权和婚姻队列是初育间隔的决定因素；妇女教育、儿童死亡和理想子女数是第二和第三生育间隔的预测因素；妇女的媒体接触和儿童死亡经历是第四生育间隔的预测因素。
该研究表明，尽管连续生育间隔较长，但初婚年龄中位数最低。生存分析确定了妇女的教育、职业、儿童死亡和理想子女数影响初婚年龄和生育间隔持续时间的时间安排。因此，鼓励妇女接受更高的教育并为妇女提供就业机会，可能有助于推迟初婚年龄和增加生育间隔时间，从而降低妇女的生育率。
