Age at first birth in Canada: a hazards model analysis.

Area of Science:

• Demography
• Sociology
• Public Health

Background:

• Limited demographic research exists on age at first birth in Canada due to scarce maternity history data.
• This study utilizes data from the 1984 Canadian Fertility Survey, focusing on ever-married women aged 18-49.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze factors influencing the age at first birth in Canada.
• To identify covariates associated with early childbearing among different age cohorts.

Main Methods:

• Employed Cox's proportional hazards model for multivariate analysis.
• Analyzed data separately for age cohorts (18-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49) to ensure covariate effect homogeneity.
• Addressed selectivity and censoring issues inherent in cross-sectional retrospective data.

Main Results:

• Lower age at marriage, premarital pregnancy, lower educational attainment, unemployment, and non-contraceptive use before first pregnancy are associated with early first birth.
• The impact of these covariates varied across different age groups.
• Relative risks for first birth were estimated for various covariate combinations, identifying high-risk and low-risk groups.

Conclusions:

• Identified key demographic and socioeconomic factors predicting early initiation of childbearing in Canada.
• Highlighted the importance of age-specific analysis for understanding fertility patterns.
• Provided risk estimates for targeted public health or social interventions.