Table 1 Definition/description and measurement of independent [both individual and community level] variables

 Maternal education

Re-coded as “0” for no formal education, “1” for primary education, and “2” for secondary and above (combining secondary and higher education categories).

 Maternal age (Years)

Re-coded into three categories with values of “0” for 15–24, “1” for 25–34, and “2” for 35–49.

 Religion

Re-coded in four categories with a value of “0” for Orthodox Christian, “1” for Muslim, “2” for protestant, and “3” for other religious groups (Catholic, traditional, and the other religious categories).

 Parity

Re-coded as “0” for Primiparous (having parity of one), “1” for multiparous (having parity of 2–4), and “2” for grand multiparous (having parity of 5 and above).

 Birth order

Re-coded into four categories [“0” for 1st order birth, “1” for 2nd order birth, “2” for 3rd order birth, and “3” for 4th order and above birth].

 Household wealth status

It was coded as “0” for the poorest, “1” for poorer, “2” for middle, “3” for richer, and “4” for richest in the data set and we used as it is for our analysis.

 Media exposure

Created by combining whether a respondent reads a newspaper, listen to the radio, and watch television and coded as “0” no (if women were not exposed to at least one of the media) and “1” for yes (if a woman had exposed to at least one of these media).

 Health insurance coverage

Re-coded as “0” if a woman was not covered by health insurance and “1” if a woman was covered by health insurance.

 Perception of distance from the health facility

Re-coded, as “0” if a woman perceives distance from the health facility as a big problem and “1” if a woman perceives distance from the health facility as not a big problem.

 Residence

Re-coded as “0” for urban and “1” for rural residence

 Region

From the data set region was coded as “0–10” for Afar, Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Somalia, Benishangul, SNNPR, Gambela, Harari, Addis Ababa, and Dire Dawa respectively and we used as it is for this study.

 Community level of women education

Measured by the proportion of women with a minimum of primary level of education derived from data on mothers or respondents’ level of education and coded as: “0″ for low (communities in which < 50% women had at least primary education) and “1″ for high (communities in which ≥50% women had at least primary education) community level of women education.

 Community level of child care burden

Measured by the proportion of women who had five or more children derived from data on the total number of children ever born. It was coded as “0” for low (communities in which < 25% women had five or more children), “1” for medium (communities in which 25–50% women had five or more children), and “2” high (communities in which ≥50% women had five or more children) community level childcare burden.

 Community poverty level

Measured by the proportion of women in the poorest and poorer quintiles derived from data on wealth index. It was coded as “0” for low (communities in which < 25% women had poorest and poorer wealth quintiles), “1” for medium (communities in which 25–50% women had poorest and poorer quintiles), and “2” for higher (communities in which ≥50% women had poorest and poorer wealth quintiles) poverty communities.

 Community level media exposure

Measured by the proportion of women who had at least exposed to one media, either television, radio, or newspaper. It was coded/categorized in a similar way to that of the above community level variables as “0” for low, “1” for medium, and “2” for high community level media exposure.