Statistical Modelling Of Birth Spacing And Reproductive Health Of Married Women From Gomoa East District In The Central Region Of Ghana: A Survival Analysis Approach

ABSTRACT

The objective of this research is to apply appropriate statistical techniques to

model the length of time to successive births (birth spacing) within the

reproductive health of mothers and identify the socio-demographic and sociocultural

factors that cause variation in the length of birth interval. The data

used in this study were collected using questionnaire from Gomoa East

District 2014, where multi-stage cluster sampling was used as the sampling

design. The clusters were defined as small enumeration areas (EAs) and it

was assumed that birth intervals for the women in the same cluster (children)

were correlated because they share the same environment. This study used:

Conventional Methods (Cox regression), Acceleration Failure Time (AFT);

Exponential, Weibull, Log-logistic Lognormal Frailty modelling techniques.

In the analysis, the covariates mother's age at first birth, mother's educational

level, birth experience, and survival status of the index child were found to

have significant effect on the length of birth interval for Gomoa East women.

The observations within specific women were found to be correlated and the

Cox's proportional hazards model was used to underestimate the standard

errors of the parameter estimates. The analysis with the frailty model showd

that parity may not be an important covariate for analyzing birth intervals,

especially when mother's age at birth is already in the model.

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