Table 3

Bivariate association between early sexual debut and selected individual compositional and community contextual characteristics of ever or currently married Nigerian women, 2003*


Early sexual debut


No [%(n)]
Yes [%(n)]
p-value

Individual characteristics



Age (completed years)


.001
     15 – 24
46.6 (640)
53.4 (735)

     25 – 34
56.0 (1159)
44.0 (910)

     35+
50.6 (1057)
49.4 (1030)

Education


.001
     No education
35.3 (1013)
64.7 (1856)

     Primary
57.1 (724)
42.9 (543)

     Secondary or higher
80.2 (1119)
19.8 (276)

Ethnicity


.001
     Hausa/Fulani
29.2 (606)
70.8 (1467)

     Igbo
76.7 (578)
23.3 (176)

     Yoruba
85.5 (541)
14.5 (92)

     Others
54.7 (1122)
45.3 (930)

Religion


.001
     Christian
69.9 (1593)
38.1 (686)

     Islam
38.4 (1202)
61.6 (1932)

     Others
52.6 (60)
47.4 (54)

Community characteristics


.001
Type of residence



     Urban
60.7 (1247)
39.3 (807)

     Rural
46.3 (1609)
53.7 (1868)

Community ethnic diversity, Mean (SD)
3.5 (2.6)
3.9 (2.5)
.001
Community median age of marriage, Mean (SD)
17.5 (2.5)
15.4 (1.9)
.001
Community median spousal age gap, Mean (SD)
9.3 (2.3)
10.2 (1.8)
.001
Geopolitical region


.001
     North-central
60.4 (553)
39.6 (363)

     North-east
38.1 (523)
61.9 (750)

     North-west
32.0 (523)
67.8 (1101)

     South-east
78.5 (442)
21.5 (121)

     South-south
58.8 (314)
41.2 (220)

     South-west
82.4 (562)
17.6 (120)


Chi-squared test was used for categorical data, and Mann-Whitney test continuous data for the bivariate analysis. For continuous variables, results are shown as mean and standard deviation.

Number of ethnic group in a community, represents the likelihood that two persons, chosen at random from the same area, belong to different ethnic group

Data source – 2003 Nigeria Demographic and Survey. Sample size – 5531

Uthman International Journal of Health Geographics 2008 7:27   doi:10.1186/1476-072X-7-27