Knowledge, Approach and Status of Early Marriage in Bangladesh

Abstract

Early marriage is a key indicator to assess the development of a nation. Early marriage is specifically associated with some unavoidable predicament like social and physical outcomes, mood disorders, depression, anxiety, obsessive and makes dismay. Even the possibilities of iron and calcium deficiency in pregnancy under the age of 18 will be increased which leads to osteoporosis and anaemia. It also enhances the risk of Cervical Cancer as well. A descriptive type of cross sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge, approach and status of early marriage in Bangladesh where 300 eligible couples of the reproductive age were taken as sample. Data was collected through structured questionnaire by face to face interview and analyzed by SPSS version 17.0 including descriptive statistic using mean, standard deviation, percentage, Chi-square test to describe the association. The respondents got married at the age of 16.19±3.522 (Female) (Mean±SD) years and 22.22±10.532 (Male) years where the frequency of early marriage was 65% in Bangladesh. Only 22% respondents had no standard education and 63.3% female respondents were housewife which showed that the rate of literacy and working women is increasing in Bangladesh even a significant association exists between age of early marriage and occupation of the respondents (x2 10.433 with P value 0.034). 81.3% respondents were nuclear family and had a significant relation between type of the family and age of the early marriage (x2 4.136 with P value 0.042). Average monthly household income was 12,226±5,787.366 taka where 10.3% had 20000 taka. 55.33% had no marriage registration and 15.3% had no child birth registration of their child. All the respondents agreed to stop early marriage and showed positive attitude where 99% thought for female <18 years will not suitable for marriage. These study results specifically showed the necessity of Bangladesh to give more attention on this issue to graduate from Least Developed Country (LDC) list