Understanding the impacts of child marriage on the health and well-being of adolescent girls and young women residing in urban areas in Egypt

Abstract

Plain language summary Child marriage has been shown to lead to a host of negative health and social consequences. In this study, we explored the prevalence and consequences of child marriage in urban areas in Egypt, where there has been little research done on the topic. We analyzed quantitative data collected as part of the Egypt Demographic and Health survey as well as qualitative data collected as part of a bigger study on child marriage in humanitarian studies. In the quantitative analysis, we focused on three sets of outcomes: reproductive health outcomes, social outcomes and maternal health outcomes. In the qualitative analysis, we analyzed focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and key informant interviews and came up with themes around consequences of child marriage. The analysis revealed that child marriage is associated with multiple adverse consequences. However, many of the reproductive health consequences identified were due to the longer duration of these marriages, and thus disappeared when marriage duration was taken into account. From the social outcomes, we found that child marriage was associated with female genital mutilation and larger spousal age gaps, and from the maternal health outcomes, we found that child marriage was associated with not receiving antenatal care and not delivering via C-section. The qualitative data highlighted a range of consequences focusing on access to sexual and reproductive health services, exposure to FGM, marriage and birth registration, and relationships with husbands and in-laws.

Keywords

• Child marriage
• Adolescent health
• Women
• Sexual and reproductive health
• Egypt