Peer-reviewed article

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

S. M. Mostafa Kamal · 1 Apr 2022

Summary

Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001

This study examined data from 2,911 Bangladeshi women to understand how child marriage affects women's reproductive health and their children's well-being. The research found that 78% of women in Bangladesh were married before age 18, with 36% married before age 15. Women married at older ages had significantly better reproductive health, and children whose mothers had better reproductive health were less likely to be malnourished or stunted. Early marriage and early childbirth are widespread in Bangladesh and harm both mothers and their children.

Key points

78% of Bangladeshi women were married before age 18; 36% before age 15, with mean first marriage age of 15.8 years
Women married at 18+ were 4.74 times more likely to have better reproductive health than those married before 15
Children of mothers with high reproductive health index were significantly less likely to be stunted (OR=0.70), underweight (OR=0.59), or wasted (OR=0.64)
Children of mothers with poor reproductive health had increased risk of anthropometric failure and lower survival rates
School retention for girls is recommended as a strategy to delay marriage and improve health outcomes

Limitations

The study used cross-sectional survey data, so it cannot establish causation or account for confounding factors that may explain the associations. The findings reflect Bangladesh-specific context and may not generalize to other countries with different child marriage patterns.

Abstract

Child marriage has 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. Objectives: In this study we examined the effect of age at marriage on reproductive health status of women and the impact of the mother’s reproductive health status on child well-being. Data and methods: 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. Results: Overall, 78% of the women were married-off before they reach their eighteenth birth day, of 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 had adverse effect on the reproductive health status of women and child well-being. The women married at age 18 or later and those 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) as likely as to have better reproductive health than those who were married-off before age 15. The children belonging to mother 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) and 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 lower risk of survivorship. Early marriage and early childbirth are common in Bangladesh that adversely affects both mother and child health. Program should aim to retain girls in schooling for a longer period by the government as well as guardians, not only to raise their education level but also for their sound health and overall societal development.

Findings the Hub has extracted

Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.

SurvivalDevelopmentProtection

Problem

Child marriage leads to early pregnancy and poor reproductive health in mothers, which harms children's nutritional status and survival

Intervention: Delaying marriage through longer school retention for girls
Population: Women in Bangladesh aged 15-49 and their under-five children

Key finding

Women married at age 18+ were 4.74 times more likely to have better reproductive health than those married before age 15 (95% CI=4.25-5.29)

Practitioner