Household characteristics and unintended pregnancy among married women in Nigeria

Chibuogwu Izugbara, University of the Witwatersrand

Although a substantial body of literature explores maternal and child health consequences associated with unintended pregnancy. Currently, there is little research on the implications of non-individual level factors for unintended pregnancy. Yet, factors such as household characteristics, place of residence and number of rooms, age and sex of household head have huge implications of unintended pregnancy. The neglect of these factors which are also associated with adverse outcomes for women’s and infant health, especially in developing countries is critical. To provide a scientific foundation for the interaction between unintended pregnancy and household structure, the study uses data from the Nigerian DHS 2008 based on a sample of 31,594 women aged 15-49 who were currently pregnant at the time of the survey. The bivariate regression analyses show that all six variables have association with unintended pregnancy. When a multivariate regression was used, only education, wealth and region had a significant association with unintended pregnancy