Table 2.

Description of independent variables according to the DHS manual.

Variable	Description
Place of residence	The type of residence where the respondent was interviewed was either urban or rural. Urban areas are classified into large cities (capital cities and cities with over 1 million population), small cities (population over 50,000), and towns (other urban areas), while all rural areas are considered to be countryside.
Age	Age of the women in 5-year groups
Educational level	This standardized variable provides education levels in the following categories: No education, Primary, Secondary, and Higher.
Wealth index	The wealth index is a composite measure of a household’s cumulative living standard. It is calculated using easy-to-collect data on a household’s ownership of selected assets, such as televisions and bicycles, materials used for housing construction, and types of water access and sanitation facilities. Generated through principal components analysis, the wealth index places individual households on a continuous scale of relative wealth. DHS separates all interviewed households into five wealth quintiles to compare the influence of wealth on various population, health, and nutrition indicators.
Breastfeeding	Whether the respondent is currently breastfeeding a child
Contraceptive use	Current contraceptives use either modern methods as “yes” or “no” otherwise.
Marital status	Whether the household member is currently, formerly, or never married (or lived with a partner). Currently married includes married women and women living with a partner, and formerly married includes widowed, divorced, or separated women and women who have lived with a partner but are not now living with a partner.
Respondent’s employment status	Whether the respondent was working during the time of the survey or not