James Forty
Abstract
Background: Population growth is considered a problem in Malawi, Africa and fertility is reportedly a key factor in the growth of this population. The subject of studies on fertility-related factors has been period fertility rather than lifetime fertility. However, period fertility is reported to be ...
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Background: Population growth is considered a problem in Malawi, Africa and fertility is reportedly a key factor in the growth of this population. The subject of studies on fertility-related factors has been period fertility rather than lifetime fertility. However, period fertility is reported to be associated with a tempo effect and therefore may not represent lifetime fertility accurately. The present study; therefore, examined whether age at first marriage or birth has an effect on lifetime fertility in Malawi, as it is the case with period fertility.Methods: Secondary data from the Malawi Demographic and Health Survey were used for this study. The study was conducted from October 2015 to February 2016 and surveyed 24562 women of reproductive age (15-49 years). The research was limited to a subsample of 3583 women because the focus of this paper is on women aged 40-49 years. The number of children ever born was used to determine fertility. Analysis of variance and Poisson regression model were used as statistical tests. The multivariable association between the number of children ever born and the independent variables was predicted using the Poisson regression model, while the bivariate relationship was calculated using analysis of variance.Results: The results of the bivariate analysis showed that age of first cohabitation (P=0.01) and age of first birth (P=0.01) were strongly associated with total number of births. Both unadjusted and adjusted Poisson regression models showed significant associations for multivariable outcomes. Accordingly, the number of children ever born was significantly associated with the following variables: an adjusted model with age of 26 years and older as the reference category, beginning cohabitation (AIRR=1.09, P=0.04) or first birth (AIRR=1.61, P=0.03) at age younger than 18 years; cohabitation (AIRR=1.09, P=0.04) or first birth (AIRR=1.48, P=0.03) at age of 18 to 21 years.Conclusions: Based on the findings of the study, the study recommends stakeholders to support household income-generating capacity, expand access to education for both boys and girls, and maintain the use of modern contraceptives.
