Determinants of change in fertility pattern among women in Uganda during the period 2006\u20132011

Paulino Ariho,Abel Nzabona,Allen Kabagenyi

doi:10.1186/s40738-018-0049-1

Paulino Ariho, Abel Nzabona + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40738-018-0049-1

Copy DOI

Abstract

BackgroundStudies on fertility in Uganda have attributed fertility reduction to a shift in the overall characteristics of women of reproductive age. It is not clear whether the reduction in fertility is due to changing socioeconomic and demographic characteristics over time or stems from the shifts in the reproductive behavior of women. In this paper we examine how fertility rates have changed between 2006 and 2011 and whether these changes have resulted from changing characteristics or from changing reproductive behavior of women.MethodsUsing the 2006 and 2011 Demographic and Health Survey data for Uganda, Multivariate Poisson Decomposition techniques were applied to evaluate observed changes in fertility.ResultsChanging characteristics of women aged 15–49 years significantly contributed to the overall change in fertility from 2006 to 2011. The change observed in older age at first marriage was the major contributor to the changes in fertility. The contribution that can be attributed to changes in reproductive behavior was not significant.ConclusionsThis study finds that the major contribution to the reduction in fertility between 2006 and 2011 was from increased education and delayed marriage among women. Continued improvement in secondary school completion, will lead to older age at first marriage and will continue to be an important factor in Uganda’s declining fertility rates.

Highlights

Studies on fertility in Uganda have attributed fertility reduction to a shift in the overall characteristics of women of reproductive age
Total fertility rate (TFR), the number of live births that a woman would have at the end of her reproductive years if the prevailing age specific fertility rates remained constant [1] has declined in all developing regions of the world
In Asia and Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, a decline in TFR began in the mid-1970s, and 1990s respectively [2]

Summary

Introduction

Studies on fertility in Uganda have attributed fertility reduction to a shift in the overall characteristics of women of reproductive age. Whereas Asia and Latin America have had rapid fertility declines, the declines in Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa have been modest [3]. For example between 1950 and 2010, total fertility rates (TFR) in Asia and Latin America declined from 5.8. Studies have found fertility changes to be associated with changes in demographic, socioeconomic and cultural factors which influence family size, contraceptive access and use and age at first marriage [8,9,10]. The decrease in the proportion of women in unions was more than offset by the shift in their reproductive behaviors and fertility remained higher [9]

Methods

Results

Conclusion