Farag M K, al-Mazrou Y Y, Baldo M H, Aziz K M, al-Shehri S N
Directorate of Health Centres, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
J Trop Pediatr. 1995;41 Suppl 1:8-20. doi: 10.1093/tropej/41.supplement_1.8.
The data of this work are based on the 'Saudi Maternal and Child Health Survey' conducted in 1991. This was a nationwide house to house field survey. The study included 6294 ever-married Saudi female in the childbearing age who represent the target population. They were randomly selected from both urban and rural settings of the five geographical areas of Saudi Arabia. The mean current age of the sample of ever-married women was 31 years and the mean age at first marriage was 17 and 16 years for urban and rural females, respectively. Education was associated with upward shift of the age at first marriage. About 20 per cent of the sampled ever-married Saudi females got married before their 15th birthday and 83 per cent before reaching 20 years of age. These percentages are even higher in rural than urban settings. The overall percentage of women who were currently married at the time of the survey was 96 per cent. The divorced and widowed women of childbearing age were 2 and 3 per cent, respectively, of the total. Husband's educational level had positive impact on the frequency of divorce. The latter was highest among women married to illiterate husbands with a dose response pattern. Comparison has been made with the situation 4 years ago. An increase in literacy rates among Saudi ever-married women and their husbands was observed, however, a significant (P < 0.05) difference still exists between female and male literacy rates (38 and 71 per cent, respectively). The events of early marriage, before the age of 15 years, became less frequent. There is an overall decline in teenage marriages which explains a large part of the recent changes observed in nuptiality and pattern of birth in Saudi Arabia.
本研究的数据基于1991年开展的“沙特母婴健康调查”。这是一项全国性的逐户实地调查。该研究纳入了6294名处于育龄期的沙特已婚女性，她们代表了目标人群。这些女性是从沙特阿拉伯五个地理区域的城乡地区随机选取的。已婚女性样本的当前平均年龄为31岁，城市和农村女性的初婚平均年龄分别为17岁和16岁。教育与初婚年龄的上升有关。约20%的抽样沙特已婚女性在15岁之前结婚，83%在20岁之前结婚。农村地区的这些比例甚至高于城市地区。调查时当前已婚女性的总体比例为96%。育龄期的离婚和丧偶女性分别占总数的2%和3%。丈夫的教育水平对离婚频率有积极影响。在与文盲丈夫结婚的女性中，离婚率最高，且呈剂量反应模式。与4年前的情况进行了比较。观察到沙特已婚女性及其丈夫的识字率有所提高，然而，男女识字率之间仍存在显著差异（P<0.05）（分别为38%和71%）。15岁之前的早婚情况变得不那么频繁了。青少年婚姻总体呈下降趋势，这在很大程度上解释了沙特阿拉伯近期在婚姻状况和生育模式方面观察到的变化。
