Woldemariam Hirpa

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Country: Ethiopia
Background: Nursing, BSc Public Health
Research Project: Determinants of current family size and prospective fertility desire for more children by sex preference among employees of federal ministry of health, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Although the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in Ethiopia as a whole stood at 5.4
children per woman, the TFR in urban areas like Addis Ababa is below the replacement level.
This study aimed at examining factors that determine current family size, desire of prospective
fertility by sex preference and the result of the study then compared with the findings of recent
Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS), 2005. 

METHODOLOGY: 265 (50%) employees of Ministry of Health out of total 529 were selected using
both stratified and Simple Random Sampling methods. Face- to- face interview and focus group
discussions were undertaken to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were
analyzed using SPSS software 

RESULTS:  Average actual and preferred ideal family size of the respondents was 2.7 and 3.1
children per family respectively.  In spite of prevailing social and demographic constraints, these
averages were still far above current TFR of Addis Ababa. The promising finding is that roughly
more than two third (69%) of married respondents had already  decided to stop  child bearing.
Sex- selectiveness was common behavior among the study groups, strong son preference was
found. On the other hand, the impressed finding has been that decision making power in terms of
prospective fertility was equally shared between husband and wife with no interference from the
third parties. 

CONCLUSION: Although both the actual family size and prospective fertility preferences measures
are higher than the current TFR of Addis Ababa,  there have been some indications for fertility
decline in the study group as compared to national TFR.