Child Marriage and Its Association with Reproductive Health Status of Women and Their Child Well-being In Bangladesh

Abstract

Child marriage leads to adverse reproductive health outcomes of women and mothers’ poor health status, which affects the well-being of their children. Despite this, much less is known regarding this interrelationship among Bangladeshi women. In this study, we examined the effect of age at marriage on the reproductive health status of women and the impact of the mother’s reproductive health status on child well-being. To meet the objectives, we used the most recent 2011 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey data. Both bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses were employed to analyze the data. Overall, 78% of the women were married-off before they reached their eighteenth birthday, among which, 36% were married before the age of 15. The mean age at first marriage and first birth were 15.8 and 17.9 years, respectively. The findings of this study reveal that early age at marriage has an adverse effect on the reproductive health status of women and child well-being. The women married at age 18 or later and those who married off at age 15-17 were 4.74 times (95% CI=4.25-5.29) and 1.72 times (95% CI=1.58-1.87) likely to have better reproductive health compared with those who were married off before age 15. The children belonging to mothers with high RHI were significantly (p<0.01) less likely than children of women with poor RHI to suffer from stunting (OR=0.70, 95% CI=0.39-0.83), underweight (OR=0.59, 95% OR=0.40-0.86), wasting (OR=0.64, 95% CI=0.38-1.06) and any failure of anthropometric measure (OR=0.56, 95% CI=0.38-0.82). The under-five children with poor reproductive health of mothers were significantly at increased risk of any anthropometric failure, including stunting, wasting and underweight, and had a lower risk of survivorship. Early marriage and early childbirth are common in Bangladesh that adversely affect both mother and child health. Programs should aim to retain girls in schooling for a longer period by the government as well as guardians, and raise their education level for their sound health and overall societal development.