Factors associated with the birth interval of two children born in within the past five years before the survey among women of reproductive age in Uganda
Abstract
The study was intended to identify the factors associated with birth intervals in Uganda. In order to achieve the general objective of the study, three objectives were set; studying the association between 1. Socio-economic factors 2. Demographic factors and 3. Maternal factors with child spacing. The study used secondary data which was collected by UBOS in 2016. For the purpose of this current study, two methods of data analysis were applied; univariate and bivariate analysis. From the univariate analysis, three quarters of the respondents spaced their children for less than 33 months, almost a third of them acquired prenatal care, Anglicans and Catholics dominated the respondents, almost three quarter of the respondents had primary education, majority of these respondents were poor, a quarter were in the age group of 35-39 years and 40-44 years respectively in Eastern Uganda.
From bivariate analysis, there existed a significant statistical association between prenatal care, marital status, education level, wealth index, age, place of residence, and child breast feeding with a birth interval. This makes the stated null hypotheses for these variables false and the alternative hypothesis true. Therefore, it can be concluded that child spacing is affected by the above-mentioned factors in Uganda. Therefore, the researcher recommends to educate and sensitize of men on the importance of child spacing or birth interval, creation of employment opportunities targeting mothers and equal distribution of health facilities within rural and urban areas of eastern Uganda. There was a significant statistical association between the outcome variable (birth interval) and the dependent variables these include the prenatal care, marital status, educational level, wealth index, age, place of residence and child breast feeding. This makes the stated null hypotheses for these variables false and the alternative hypothesis true. Therefore, it can be concluded that the birth interval is affected by the above-mentioned factors in Eastern Uganda. More emphasis should be put on to educating and sensitization of men and some of the ignorant mothers of the importance of spacing children. Therefore, through this men would be able to work hand in hand with their wives to be able to at least spend two years before they could have another child and also support their wives financially to access family planning services.