Date of Award

12-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MS in Epidemiology & Biostatistics

First Advisor

Mr Waqas Hameed

Second Advisor

Muslima Ejaz

Third Advisor

Syed Mahboob Shah

Department

Community Health Sciences

Abstract

India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have experienced a slow decline in fertility rate. Women empowerment shapes the fertility desires and their attainment among women. Thus the main aim of this study was to determine the association between women empowerment and achievement of desired family size in married women who have completed their family (age 45 and above) in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. For this research most recent Demographic and health survey datasets of the three South Asian countries were appended. Women empowerment was studied in three domains i.e., Attitude to violence, Social Independence and decision-making, and categorized as low medium and high categories based on scored generated using Swapper scale. Descriptive statistics was done to see the distribution of socio demographic, fertility related and husband related characteristics in the study population, along with univariate and multivariable logistic regression to determine the association between women empowerment and achievement of desired family size. The Odds Ratio (OR) with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was calculated for the relevant variables and the significant ones were included in the final model for each country. The attitude to violence domain exhibited an insignificant association with achievement of desired family size in all three countries, OR 1.10 (0.61 – 1.96) for Pakistan, OR 0.85 (0.64 – 1.15) for India and OR 0.73 (0.34 – 1.57) for Bangladesh for highly empowered women, while the domain Social Independence was constantly significant with achievement of desired family size in all countries with an OR 3.78 (1.99 – 7.17) in Pakistan, OR 2.86 (2.16 – 3.17) in India and OR 2.35 (1.26 – 4.35) in Bangladesh for highly empowered women. The domain decision making also remained insignificant in all three countries with OR 1.32 (0.77-2.25) for Pakistan, OR 0.98 (0.74 – 1.28) in India, OR 1.30 (0.69 – 2.45) in Bangladesh for highly empowered women. Husbands desire for children was also found to have a significant role in determining the achievement of desired family size in all three countries.

First Page

1

Last Page

60

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