Birth interval and its predictors among married women in Dabat District, Northwest Ethiopia: a retrospective follow up study

Birth intervals (time between two successive live births) if short are associated with diverse complications. We assessed birth interval and its predictors among 613 married women who gave birth from January 1 to December 30, 2008. Data were collected in April 2012. Life table and Kaplan-Meier curve were used to estimate cumulative probabilities and median birth interval, respectively. Log rank test was employed to compare survival between categories of explanatory variables. Cox-proportional hazards model was fitted to compute hazard ratios with their 95% confidence intervals. Median birth interval was 32.6 months (95% CI: 31.2-34.1). The cumulative probabilities of survival at 12, 24, and 36 months were 0.97, 0.82 and 0.56 respectively. Death of the index child (AHR = 3.12), contraceptive non use (AHR = 4.29) and husband's education (AHR = 2.20) were significant predictors. Birth interval was short. Contraceptive use and paternal education should be given greater attention in addition to prevention of infant and child mortality.