Background/objective: Nigeria is among countries with the poorest contraceptive prevalence rate globally. Many challenges have been identified as constraints, but little have been studied about early marriage as a barrier to contraception. This study explores early marriage as a predisposing factor to low utilization of contraceptives among married women in Nigeria.
Materials and Method: The sample for this study included ever-married women aged 20-24 years who were successfully interviewed in NDHS, 2018. The survey used a two-stage stratified cluster sampling technique for selection of respondents who were interviewed using structured questionnaire adapted from the DHS Program's standard Demographic and Health Survey (DHS-7) questionnaire. The data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 20.0)
Result: The study showed that higher proportion of early married compared to adult married women preferred less than 24 months waiting period between births (72.2% vs 15.7%), desired 5 or more children as ideal (83.7% vs 57.5%), birth in first year of marriage (75.2 vs 57.3), in lowest wealth quintile (33.3% vs 12.8%), with no education (59.4% vs 20.3%) and married to spouses who desired more children (65.7% vs 45.5%) and with no education (48.7% vs 14.4%). The multivariate analysis revealed that early brides have higher odd for childbirth in first year of marriage (OR=2.26, CI=1.96-2.61), birth of up to 4 children (OR=38.43; CI=28.09-52.58), ever had a pregnancy terminated (OR=1.21; CI=1.00-1.48) and lower odd of waiting period of two or more years (OR=0.66; CI=0.52-0.83). However, Early marriage was only associated with birth of less than 3 children in the adjusted model (AOR=10.28; CI=2.57-41.13).
Conclusion: Early marriage was found to predispose women to constraints that limit the use of contraceptives. It is therefore pertinent to strengthen legislation that supports increasing age of marriage and promote targeted intervention among married adolescents
