Factors associated with number of children ever born among women aged 15-49 in Eastern Uganda

Abstract

Uganda is among the various African countries that still has a high fertility. The 2016 UDHS shows that the TFR of Uganda is 5.4 children per woman implying that a woman in Uganda on average produces 5 and above children. Eastern Uganda has a TFR of 6.1 births per woman making it to be one of the regions with highest TFR. The main objective of the study was to examine the factors associated with number of children ever born in Eastern Uganda. The study used 2016 UDHS data set for women aged 15-49 years and the sample size was 2858 women being respondents where by characteristics of respondents were discussed according to the results that were obtained from the Univariate descriptive tables while cross tabulations and Pearson Chi-squared tests were used to ascertain association between the independent variables and the number of children ever born at 95%CI (p-value <0.05). Results showed that majority had 4+ children ever born, were aged (20-24) constituted of 20.9%, were 18+ with (52.39%). Most if the respondents were married (83.3%) from the working status (84.6%),40.9% were those who were not using but intended to use contraceptives,34.2% were Anglicans and 87.1% resided in rural areas. The age of respondents, place of residence, education level, wealth status, working status had a statistically significant association with CEB(p<0.001). However, religion had a statistically insignificant relationship with CEB(p>0.05). As per multivariate results, age at first birth (OR=0.274;CI:0.199-0.378), place of residence (OR=1.658;CI:1.1062-2.384), wealth index (OR=0.621; CI:0.459-0.842), marital status(OR=7.663;CI:1.901-30.895), age of respondents (OR=0.003;CI:0.001-0.005), Education level (OR=0.189;CI:0.075-0.477), working status(OR=0.623;CI:0.452-0.857), and contraceptive use (OR=0.416;CI:0.261-0.662). In conclusion, women with less education levels are likely to have more children than those with higher education levels, as well those from rich households are more likely to have fewer children than those that are from poor households. Therefore, the government and policy makers need to invest more in the education sector, implement teenage friendly programs in the health care and as well increase the median age at first marriage.