Dataset Information

Socio-economic, demographic, and behavioural determinants of women's empowerment in Mozambique.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Empowerment is considered pivotal for how women access and use health care services and experience their sexual and reproductive rights. In Mozambique, women's empowerment requires a better understanding and contextualization, including looking at factors that could drive empowerment in that context. This study aims to identify socioeconomic, demographic, and behavioural determinants of different domains of women's empowerment in Mozambique.

Methods

Using the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2015 for Mozambique, a sample of 2072 women aged between 15 and 49 years old were included in this study. The DHS's indicators of women's empowerment were used in a principal component analysis and the obtained components were identified as the domains of empowerment. Logistic regressions were run to estimate the association of socioeconomic, demographic, and behavioural characteristics with each domain of empowerment. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) and respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated.

Results

Three domains of women's empowerment were identified, namely (1) Beliefs about violence against women, (2) Decision-making, and (3) Control over sexuality and safe sex. Region, rurality, the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) and partner's controlling behaviours were associated with Beliefs about violence against women, while Decision-making and Control over sexuality and safe sex were also associated with education, age and wealth. Employment, polygamous marriage and religion was positively associated with Decision-making, and access to media increased the odds of Control over sexuality and safe sex.

Conclusion

Women's empowerment seems to be determined by different socio-economic, demographic, and behavioural factors and this seems to be closely related to different domains of empowerment identified. This finding affirms the multi-dimensionality of empowerment as well as the importance of considering the context- and community-specific characteristics.

SUBMITTER: Castro Lopes S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8162630 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundDespite numerous national and international efforts to alleviate child growth faltering, it remains a global health challenge. There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of women's empowerment in a wide range of public health topics, such as the utilization of maternal healthcare services, agricultural productivity, and child nutrition. However, in Ethiopia, the relationship between women's empowerment and child nutritional status is not studied at the national level. This study aimed to determine the association between women's empowerment and growth faltering in under-5 children in Ethiopia.MethodsThe data source for this analysis is the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS): a nationally representative household survey on healthcare. The EDHS employed a two-stage stratified cluster sampling technique. We computed standard women's empowerment indices, following the Survey-based Women's emPowERment index approach. A multilevel logistic regression model that accounted for cluster-level random effects was used to estimate the association between women's empowerment and child growth faltering (stunting, wasting and underweight).ResultsAttitude to violence, social independence, and decision-making were the three domains of women's empowerment that were associated with child growth faltering. One standard deviation increase in each domain of empowerment was associated with a reduction in the odds of stunting: attitude towards violence (AOR?=?0.92; 95% CI 0.88-0.96; p?<?0.001), social independence (AOR?=?0.95; 95% CI 0.89-0.99; p?=?0.049), and decision-making (AOR?=?0.93; 95% CI 0.87-0.99; p?=?0.023). Similarly, each standard deviation increase in attitude towards violence (AOR?=?0.93; 95% CI 0.89-0.98; p?=?0.008), social independence (AOR?=?0.91; 95% CI 0.86-0.97; p?=?0.002), and decision-making (AOR?=?0.92; 95% CI 0.86-0.99; p?=?0.020) were associated with a decrease in the odds of having underweight child.ConclusionsEnsuring women's empowerment both in the household and in the community could have the potential to decrease stunting and underweight in a rapidly developing country like Ethiopia. Policymakers and health professionals need to consider women's empowerment in this unique context to improve nutritional outcomes for children and alleviate growth faltering.