Partner age difference and fertility in Uganda

Emmanuel O. Olamijuwon, University of the Witwatersrand
Jeremy Gumbo, University of the Witwatersrand

Persistent high fertility of less developed countries like Uganda is straining social and economic resources as well as hampering the country’s development opportunities. While previous studies on partner age difference had focused on its effect on spousal violence and HIV/AIDS transmission, rarely has its association with fertility been explored. This study therefore explores this association to fill this research gap and draw attention to an unexplored factor that might be contributing to Uganda’s high fertility. The Poisson regression was used to investigate this association drawing data from Uganda's most recent Demographic and Health Survey. Although findings from our study suggests that partner age difference has no association with fertility in Uganda, we noted the following directions of flow. That women who were older than partners had lower fertility, while those who were younger than their partner had higher fertility.