Determinants of Short Birth Interval Among Married Women of Child Bearing Age in Becho Woreda, South West Showa Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Short Birth interval is the time duration less than 33 months between two consecutive live births. Short birth interval is one of the concerns of different countries of the world, because it can affect the overall economic, political and social aspects of a given country by increasing their fertility. Women in the developing world who have many children in quick succession place themselves and their children at enormous risks.Child bearing patterns-maternal age, birth order, and the interval between births-have an important influence upon the probability that a child will survive infancy and early childhood. Thus the study area has short birth interval below the national and WHO recommendation.

Objective: To identify determinants of short birth interval among married women of child bearing age in Becho Woreda.

Methods and materials: Community based case control study was conducted from July to October 2019. Cases (n=231) were women with short birth intervals less than 33 months), whereas controls (n=462) were women having history of birth intervals (33 to 59 Months) selected by systematic random sampling. Data were collected using structured interviewer administered questionnaires then cleaned, coded, entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 22. Frequency distributions, measures of central tendency and logistic regression were calculated and interpreted accordingly.

Result: Result of this study revealed that 60.3% of respondents had information about short birth interval and 65.4% of respondents have utilized previous pregnancy plan. Age of mother at first child birth, the number of children, her educational level, wealth index, occupation of the mother, and duration of breast feeding and use of modern contraceptive were the determinant of optimum birth interval. Having no formal education [(AOR= 2.04, 95% CI; (1.49-2.78)], duration of breastfeeding for less than 24 months[(AOR=0.62, 95% CI; (0.45-0.84)], preceding child being female [(AOR=7.69, 95% CI; (5.24-11.30)], modern contraceptive use [(AOR=7.07, 95% CI: (5.03-9.94)], poor wealth index [(AOR=3.08, 95% CI; (1.85-5.14)] and Previous pregnancy plan [(AOR= 8.59, 95% CI; (6.02-12.18)] of respondents were independent predictors of short birth interval.

Conclusion and recommendation: Educational status, duration of breast feeding, sex of the preceding child, modern contraceptive use and wealth index were markers of unequal distribution of inter birth intervals. Ministry of Health should work on women and their partner on creating awareness about the importance of modern contraceptive utilization, breast-feeding, and optimal birth interval.

Keywords: Birth interval; Child bearing age; Determinants; South West Shoa

DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/87-01

Publication date:March 31^st 2021