Determinants of fertility in Malawi: Does women autonomy dimension matter?

BMC Women's Health

Table 1 Sample characteristics of married or cohabiting women aged 15–49 years at the time of survey, 2015–16 MDHS (N = 15,952)

Variable	N	%
Autonomy in household decision making participation
Have autonomy	7896	49.5
Have partial autonomy	5791	36.3
Have no autonomy	2265	14.2
Sexual Autonomy
Have autonomy	10,062	64.1
Have partial autonomy	2920	18.6
Have no autonomy	2715	17.3
Age at first cohabitation
19 years and less	12,058	75.5
20 years and above	3894	24.5
Contraceptive use
Using modern methods	9220	57.8
Not using modern methods	6732	42.2
Religion
Christian	13,960	88.1
Muslim	1886	11.9
Ethnicity
Chewa	4655	31.5
Tumbuka	1164	11.5
Lomwe	2774	18.0
Tonga	0580	3.8
Yao	1782	11.6
Sena	0812	5.3
Nkhonde	0204	1.3
Ngoni	1978	12.8
Mang’anja	0368	2.4
Nyanga	0288	1.9
Type of place of residence
Urban	3031	19.0
Rural	12,921	81.0
Highest education level
No education	2190	13.1
Primary	10,241	64.2
Secondary	3238	20.3
Higher	383	2.4
Household economic status
Poor	5807	36.4
Middle income	6365	39.9
Rich	3780	23.7
Husband/partner’s level of education
No education	1456	9.2
Primary	8377	53.2
Secondary	5008	31.8
Higher	915	5.8
Employed
No	5328	33.4
Yes	10,624	66.6
Exposure to media-radio listening
Not at all	7673	48.1
Less than once a week	2744	17.2
At least once a week	5535	34.7
Exposure to media-watching television
Not at all	12,712	79.7
Less than once a week	1285	08.1
At least once a week	1955	12.3

ISSN: 1472-6874