Determinants of pregnancy outcomes in Uganda

Abstract

Every year 3.2 million women deliver non live birth implying that every minute about 6 women deliver non live babies, of which 98% of the world’s non live birth occurrence are in low- and middle-income countries and Non live births in Uganda still remain high ranging between 8.3 and 25.1 per 1000 births by region. The goal of the study was to evaluate the risk factors having an impact on pregnancy outcome in Uganda before 2006 based on 8369 women who participated in the UDHS The study involved univariate, bivariate (Pearson chi-square) and multivariate (Logistic regression model) analyses to establish the statistical significance of socio-economic and demographic factors on pregnancy outcomes. The study showed that pregnancy outcomes are significantly associated with woman’s education level, age, marital status, income level, residence and domestic violence (p<0.05). Multivariate analysis revealed that woman’s education level, marital status, age and place of residence have significant effect on pregnancy outcome (p<0.05). It is concluded that women with higher education level are less likely to have non live birth as compared to women with lower education level. Married women are more likely to have non live birth compared to other marital groups. Pregnant women who experience domestic violence are more likely to have non live births just like women in age group of 35-49 and those in rural places. However, women with higher income are not more likely to have non live birth as compared to others categories.

It is recommended that stakeholders should support Universal Secondary Education with gender component embedded, improving the availability and easy access to social and family planning services, paying much more attention to women aged 35-49 years during pregnancy and delivery to reduce the high cases of non live birth and initiating and enforcing women’s organizations especially widow’s organization