Time to premarital cohabitations and its predictors among youth women in Ethiopia 2016 demographic and health survey, using parametric shared frailty model

Abstract

Abstract Introduction In the second half of the 20th century, cohabitation became highly prevalent, especially among young women between the ages of 15 and 24. Nowadays, college students and young adults in sub-Saharan Africa often have unprotected sex and contract STDs, leading to most new HIV infections. The aim of this study is to assess the time to premarital cohabitation and its predictors among youth women aged 15–24 years using the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey. Method It is a secondary data analysis from a nationwide community-based survey. The data for this analysis was extracted from 2016 DHS data. Using STATA version 17 weighted, descriptive analysis of medians, percentiles, graphs, and frequency tables will be used to characterize the study participant. We use the Kaplan-Meier method and compare categorical predictor variables using the log-rank test. The best model for the data was selected by using Akaike information criteria. Finally, the adjusted hazard ratio or adjusted time ratio was used as a measure of effect size, with a 5% significant level and a p-value less than 0.05. Result The overall median age of premarital cohabitation was found to be 16 years (IQR, 15–18 years). The independent predictors of time to premarital cohabitation were: women's age (HR = 0.795; 95% CI: 0.761–0.868). 0.733 (95% CI: 0.607, 0.959) and 0.610 (95% CI: 0.589, 0.632) for primary, secondary, and higher education, respectively, among women who can read and write (HR = 0.896; 95% CI: 0.872, 0.920). Women with media access (HR = 0.722, 95% CI: 0.510, 0.963). Conclusion The most important idea is that educational level, access to media, age, and literacy are the most significant factors for the time-to-premarital cohabitation rate.