Level, Trends and Differentials of Fecundability among Bangladeshi Women

In this study an attempt has been made to see the level, trends and differentials of fecundability among Bangladeshi women. The study has observed the marked differentials of fecundability among Bangladeshi women according to their different background characteristics. This study reveals that the women with higher education have lower mean conception delay and higher fecundability than the women with primary or no education. The analysis shows that rural women remarkably have lower mean fecundability than their urban counterparts and the well-nourished females have higher mean fecundabilities than the male-nourished females. The trend analysis shows that fecundability is higher in the recent past than at some distant point of time. Interdependence analysis between age at marriage and marital duration illustrates that the fecundability of the first married women in Bangladesh decreases with increasing marriage duration when the age at marriage is controlled. Finally, the multivariate analysis through the Cox`s proportional Hazard Regression model shows that the respondent age at first marriage, age at first conception, marital duration, type of place of residence, education level and weight are found to have statistically significant association with the marriage to first conception interval.