LAILA AKHTER1*, HOUSNE ARA BEGUM2, A. K. M. SHAHABUDDIN3, T. A. B. M. MUZAFFAR GONI OSMANI1 and MD. NAZRUL ISLAM1
1=Upazila Livestock Officer, Department of Livestock Services, Dhaka, 2=Assistant Professor, Department of Health Economics, University of Dhaka, Dhaka and 3=Deputy Controller Office of CCA, Ministry of Information & Communication Technology, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh. *Correspondent author’s Email: lailadls@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
The study was done to explore the determinants of fertility and to assess the impact of occupational and other socioeconomic status of women on their fertility and reproductive behavior. The analysis was confined to married women of reproductive age. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to describe the fertility differentials. The bivariate analysis (ANOVA) was applied to examine the association between children ever born and women’s demographic, socio-economic, and cultural characteristics. Besides bivariate analysis, the net effect of each independent variable on the dependent variable after controlling for the effect of other predictors was also measured through multivariate analysis (multiple linear regressions). A cross-sectional study design was applied for this research and sample was selected through stratified random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used for collecting data from 290 respondents. The study was conducted at three metropolitan thana namely Uttara, Ramna and Shaympur under the Dhaka City Corporation, Dhaka, Bangladesh during January to March 2009. From Multiple Linear Regression analysis it was found that age at marriage, age at first birth, educational level and current age of respondent had the most significant effect on their fertility level which built the occupational background of the respondent. Multivariate Linear model explained 57.9% variance by the independent variables entered in the model. The Logistic Regression Model provided us with the odds ratios that supported the same significance. If the overall situation of socioeconomic, cultural and other related determinants of fertility improved, the educational and occupational status of women would be improved that might put forth an effect on fertility regulation of the country.
Keywords: Fertility regulation, Determinants of fertility, Impact and Reproductive age.