Multilevel poisson regression modeling to identify factors influencing the number of children ever born to married women in Oman

Abstract

Oman’s total fertility rate (TFR) reduced sharply from 7.12 in 1999/2000 to 2.86 in 2014 with an average annual rapid declining rate 0.30 per woman. This trend still demands to find the factors that may currently affect the fertility rate in Oman since there is substantial existing TFR rate in Oman. The secondary survey data is used to explore the determinants of the number of children ever born by the 4,560 Omani reproductive aged women. The survey was conducted using a multistage stratified cluster sampling design that covered all the 10 regions of Oman, dividing into 10 urban and 10 rural strata. Age, education level, living arrangement, and contraceptive use of mothers are found to be the most significant factors of the number of ever born children in Oman. The odds of the number of children between places of residence are not found significantly different. It is also found that the odds of number of children do not vary significantly among different economic groups but those vary significantly among different regions. In conclusion, Oman still need to take necessary steps to control substantially the TFR by making proper policy on the factors found in this study.

Subject Classification:

• 97k80

Keywords:

• Oman National Reproductive Health Survey
• Number of ever born children
• Poisson multilevel model