Factors influencing age at first birth among women aged 15-49 years in Uganda

Abstract

The study examined the socioeconomic and demographic risk factors focusing on the factors influencing age at first birth in Uganda. Methods: This study used secondary data from the UDHS 2016 and it was cross sectional where the population of interest was women in the reproductive age group 15-49 years, who had ever given birth and were interviewed about the age at which they had their first child.18506 women were interviewed but only 13745 women who had ever given girth were considered. Age at first birth was the dependent variable and it is widely understood as the age at which a woman gives birth to her first child. The independent variables were both socioeconomic and demographic and analysis was performed at three levels that is; Univariate, Bivariate and Multivariate analysis to explore the association between the variables and age at first birth. Results: This study confirmed an association between age at first birth and its determinants in Uganda where by 39.69% of the women had birth below the age of 18 and 60.31% of the women had birth above the age of 18. This calls for the addressing of the issue of having children at early ages through project and policy implementation focusing on both older and teenage mothers as a way to lower age at first birth in Uganda. Furthermore, promotion of women education, providing more information about contraception use can also help in lower age at first birth in Uganda since they significantly associated with age at first birth.