The analysis reveals that the factors associated with early marriage across the regions of the country are; education level, age at first sex, and age at first birth. Religion, residence and wealth status were only predictors in some regions. In regards to education level, the study divulged that higher education levels (secondary and higher) were associated with reduced odds of early marriage; which may be attributed to the delay in age at marriage caused by advancement in education. This study finding resonates with the research results that note that education is focal in delaying marriage [24–27]. In line with this, a number of strategies to promote education in Uganda, more so girl child education have been established [22]. However, more efforts are still required in some regions, due to the fact that the odds ratios decrease as education level increases but at a much slower rate especially for the girls in Northern and Western region [15]. There is therefore need to understand the factors that account for such variations in the education sector. Besides, the significance in age at first sex and first birth reverberates with the argument that early age of exposure to sexual activity increases on the likelihood of pregnancy and child birth, and thereby early marriage; this could be because in many Ugandan communities, teenage pregnancies and births are associated with disrespect, bad omen and bad influence in the community, which therefore propels early marriage across the country [22, 28]. This coincides with studies which note that early involvement in sex results into increased chances of early marriage due to the possible outcome of pregnancy and child birth together with its resultant effects [22, 28]. Therefore, later engagement in sexual activity and child birth should be promoted across all the regions through the involvement of schools, parents, guardians, religious and cultural leaders in girl child sex education, financial and social support of the girl child.
The study indicated that wealth status significantly predicted early marriage among women in Western region; where women from richer wealth index had increased odds of marrying early as compared to women from the poorest wealth index. This study finding however, contradicts with studies that observe poverty as an influence on early marriage, because it lowers a woman’s future expectations and opts for early marriage as the only available opportunity for survival, and as an avenue for the parents to off-set themselves from financial burdens [29, 30]. We therefore suggest that future studies be directed towards understanding the association between women from richer wealth index and early marriage in Western Uganda.
Our findings identified that religion significantly predicted early marriage in only Western region; whereby, protestant women had increased odds of marrying early compared to the Catholic women. Importantly, there have been no studies done to justify this variation by region of religion within any country. This therefore, informs prospect studies to focus on understanding the relationship between protestant religion and early marriage in Western Uganda.
In addition, the study results also reveal that rural residence is significantly associated with early marriage in Western region. Studies that have been done provide a general comparison of rural and urban residence in association with early marriages in a country; whereby, early marriage in rural areas is considered highest, since it is one form of legacy from the older generations to be preserved [24, 31, 32]. However, no study has been conducted to understand the variations of early marriage across regions of a country based on rural and urban residence, which therefore, proposes future studies in regards to this area for total elimination of early marriages within a country.
The potency of this manuscript is that the analysis was based on the Uganda Demographic Survey data that is nationally representative.