Ever-married Women Of Reproductive Age Research Articles

Factors affecting the most recent fertility rates in urban-rural Bangladesh

This paper reports on a study which has been undertaken using data from the 1989 Bangladesh Fertility Survey (BFS) to determine the significance of influences on the probability of birth in the year preceding the survey. In the survey a total of 11 905 ever-married women of reproductive age were asked a battery of questions relating to fertility aspects of women. Variables selected in this study were grouped into demographic, socio-economic, cultural and decision-making variables. Findings from the study indicate that the mother's age, whether contraception has ever been used, the death of a child at any time, whether the woman has ever worked, religion, region of residence, and female independence are the important covariates for explaining recent fertility in Bangladesh. Models are developed for the probabilities of a woman giving birth in urban and rural areas, dependent on her demographic and socio-economic conditions. Also developed are models for contraceptive use in urban-rural Bangladesh. This modelling contributes to a better understanding of fertility changes in Bangladesh and the differentials between urban and rural fertility. It is indicated that a continued fertility decline is likely.

A hierarchical model of contraceptive use in urban and rural Bangladesh

In this paper, a model is developed for examining the hierarchical effects of contraceptive use and its determinants in urban-rural Bangladesh by employing data from the 1989 Bangladesh Fertility Survey (BFS). In the survey, a total of 11,905 ever-married women of reproductive age were interviewed in urban and rural situations. An investigation has been carried out in this study using a set of demographic, socio-economic, cultural, and decision-making variables. A number of new findings emerge from this study. It has been found that contraceptive use has no significant variation between regions; however, a statistically significant variation exists between the blocks (census tracts) of Bangladesh. Findings also indicate that mother's parity, her education, family planning decisions, and female independence score are found to have a significant positive effect on the use of contraception in urban and rural Bangladesh, whereas child death has a significant negative influence. Religion and work experience of women are found to have little effect on contraceptive use. The findings of the study indicate priority points for policy purposes.

Sterilization in Panama

Data from the 1976 World Fertility survey was used to evaluate the impact of the sterilization of females on population growth in Panama. The study revealed 33% of all Panamanian women who wanted no more children were sterilized and 21% of all ever-married women of reproductive age were sterilized. 49% of these sterilizations occurred since 1949. It was estimated that these sterilizations would avert 0.84 births for each sterilized woman over a 25 year period. Births averted by sterilization were estimated to have reduced the birth rate by 14% and the number of unwanted births by 41%. The % of sterilized women increased markedly with greater age and marriage duration and with higher parity until the 5th birth. The % of sterilized women also increased as the number of births in the 1st 5 years of marriage increased and the % of sterilized women was higher among legally married women than among those living in consensual unions. The % of those sterilized was also higher among women whose last child was wanted compared to those whose last child was unwanted. Sterilized women were more likely to live in urban areas and to have previously used no contraception than were nonsterilized women. Multiple regression analysis revealed these variables and several other ones could jointly explain only 15% of the variation in sterilization status. The remaining 85% of the variation could not be explained using any of the variables for which data was available from the World Fertility Survey. Tables show 1) the % and number of sterilized women among ever-married women who want no more children according to selected demographic and social characteristic; 2) the distribution of ever-married sterilized women according to selected life cycle characteristics; 3) the % of sterilized women among ever-married women who want no more children according to duration since last birth; 4) the mean number of children born to sterilized and nonsterilized ever-married women by current age and duration of marriage; and 5) the mean number of children ever-born to sterilized and nonsterilized women who want no more children by risk of childbirth. Other tables show the number of averted births attributable to sterilization.

Determinants of duration of breastfeeding amongst women in Manipur

Objective: The purpose of present study is to investigate the differentials and determinants of duration breastfeeding (BF) according to various socio-economic and demographic factors. Methods: A cross sectional study of 1225 ever-married women of reproductive age with at least one live birth was conducted in four valley districts of Manipur under cluster sampling scheme. Survival analysis technique has been adopted through SPSS vs 16. Results: The median duration of BF is found to be 20.37 months. Among the six explanatory variables of interest, only two factors - place of residence (relative risk (RR) =1.35) and employment status RR = 1.88) have highly significant effect (P<0.01) on BF and only two factors educational level (RR=1.02) and parity (RR = 0.83) are found to be statistically significant (P<0.05) on BF. Conclusion: The residence, education, employment status and parity have significant effects on the present duration of BF that is about 20 months which is below the India's national figure of 25 months and WHO recommended figure of 24 months. Key words: Fertility; censored case; parity; life table; proportional hazard model DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v10i4.9493 BJMS 2011; 10 (4): 235-239