Table 1 Demographics of births in the past 5 years to ever-married women aged 15–24 years in Afghanistan, by maternal age at marriage
Total births | Age at marriage < 18 years (child marriage) | Age at marriage ≥ 18 years (adult marriage) | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | ||
Child mean age (SD) | 1.66 (0.02) | 1.84 (0.02) | 1.28 (0.04) | < .001 |
Child’s mean birth order (SD) | 1.82 (0.29) | 2.01 (0.13) | 1.41 (0.11) | < .001 |
Current age of child (y) | ||||
< 1 | 2337 (25.27) | 1291 (20.98) | 1046 (34.46) | < .001 |
1–1.9 | 1988 (21.59) | 1246 (20.35) | 742 (24.27) | |
2–2.9 | 1915 (20.24) | 1313 (20.53) | 602 (19.62)) | |
3–3.9 | 1496 (17.01) | 1106 (18.76) | 390 (13.27) | |
4–4.9 | 1041 (11.38) | 876 (14.27) | 165 (5.19) | |
Deceased | 423 (4.5) | 319 (5.12) | 104 (3.19) | |
Sex of child | ||||
Male | 4928 (53.34) | 3263 (53.38) | 1665 (53.26) | 0.965 |
Female | 4272 (46.66) | 2888 (46.62) | 1384 (46.74) | |
Place of residence | ||||
Urban | 2254 (24.33) | 1498 (24.11) | 756 (24.80) | 0.833 |
Rural | 6946 (75.67) | 4653 (75.89) | 2293 (75.20) | |
Maternal education | ||||
No education | 7076 (72.94) | 4755 (74.06) | 2321 (70.55) | < .001 |
Primary | 907 (11.82) | 663 (12.72) | 244 (9.89) | |
Secondary or higher | 1217 (15.24) | 733 (13.22) | 484 (19.56) | |
Father’s education | ||||
No education | 4562 (51.68) | 3135 (53.53) | 1427 (47.73) | 0.076 |
Primary | 1261 (14.95) | 842 (13.52) | 419 (18.00) | |
Secondary or higher | 3273 (33.37) | 2101 (32.95) | 1172 (34.27) | |
Ethnicity | ||||
Pashtun | 4130 (43.56) | 2725 (43.14) | 1405 (44.47) | 0.449 |
Tajik | 2754 (33.74) | 1882 (34.79) | 872 (31.50) | |
Hazara | 636 (7.14) | 461 (7.11) | 175 (7.20) | |
Uzbek | 533 (9.45) | 327 (9.40) | 206 (9.54) | |
Turkmen | 98 (1.55) | 68 (1.38) | 30 (1.90) | |
Nuristani | 586 (.93) | 352 (0.76) | 234 (1.29) | |
Baloch | 144 (.69) | 118 (0.82) | 26 (0.40) | |
Pashai | 173 (.95) | 116 (0.82) | 57 (1.22) | |
Other | 125 (2.00) | 83 (1.78) | 42 (2.47) | |
Wealth index | ||||
Poor | 3775 (39.39) | 2642 (40.86) | 1133 (36.24) | 0.294 |
Middle | 1936 (19.94) | 1184 (19.51) | 752(20.86) | |
Rich | 3489 (40.68) | 2325 (39.64) | 1164 (42.90) | |
Adequate antenatal care | 672 (18.12) | 384 (16.09) | 288 (21.95) | 0.039 |
Mother’s mean age (SD) | 21.66 (0.02) | 21.23 (0.02) | 22.52 (0.02) | < .001 |
Mother’s age at birth (years) | ||||
< 18 | 3989 (44.66) | 3961 (64.93) | 28 (1.26) | < .001 |
18–20 | 4153 (44.24) | 2153 (34.56) | 2000 (64.99) | |
> 20 | 1058 (11.09) | 37 (.51) | 1021 (33.75) | |
Total | 9200 (100) | 6151 (67.74) | 3049 (32.26) | |