Associations between early marriage, women’s empowerment, and infant mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is characterized by high gender inequality and a high rate of early marriages of girl children, which could have a negative influence on child health outcomes and child mortality in the region. This study examined the influence of child marriage on infant mortality in selected countries in SSA. We used Cox proportional hazard models to analyze pooled data (N = 33,549 children) from the Demographic and Health Surveys of 28 SSA countries. Our study established that children of child brides faced heightened risks of infant mortality compared with children of women who married after the age of 18, although this relationship became insignificant after controlling for women’s empowerment and other control variables. Therefore, the findings support the hypothesis that a certain extent of women’s empowerment could moderate the relationship between early marriage and infant mortality in regions where early marriages occur due to the low socioeconomic status of women. We conclude that ensuring women empowerment and increasing their economic opportunities (such as involvement in the agriculture and formal employment sectors) will lead to decreases in child marriage, thereby reducing infant mortality in SSA.