Correlates of the number of children ever born to women in rural Ethiopia: Application of truncated generalized Poisson model with exposure

Background Rapid population growth and high fertility rates in low-income countries adversely affect the provision of maternal and child healthcare services and are roadblocks to the achievement of sustainable development goals. A high fertility rate has serious health implications for both the mother and the children she bears, and thus, investigating the factors behind this phenomenon is of paramount importance. Method The data for this study were extracted from the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS 2016). The response variable was the number of children ever born (NCEB) per woman in rural Ethiopia. This responsible variable was zero-truncated since only women who had at least one live birth at the time of the survey were considered. Data from a total of 6256 women were analyzed using a zero-truncated generalized Poisson model, which takes into account any type of dispersion and the truncated nature of the response variable simultaneously. Results The mean NCEB for reproductive-age women residing in rural areas of Ethiopia was found to be about 4.5. Factors that are associated with bearing more children include early age at first birth, number of deceased children in the family, low economic status of the household and land ownership. On the other hand, contraceptive use, women’s education and media exposure had a negative impact on the NCEB per woman. The results also revealed significant regional variation, with women in the Somali region registering the highest number of child births. Conclusion To curb high maternal fertility, interventions that selectively target regions with high child births (e.g., Somali), uneducated women and poorest women; awareness creation campaigns to combat early initiation of childbearing, particularly teenage pregnancies; unreserved efforts aimed at reducing child mortality; and promoting the use of birth control measures are recommended.