Table 1.

Distribution of the study sample by sociodemographic characteristics (n = 354)

Sociodemographic characteristics	n		%
Age category
≤ 19 years	11		3.1
20–34 years	268		75.7
≥ 35 years	75		21.2
Ethnicity
Sinhalesea	237		66.9
Muslim b	72		20.3
Tamil b	44		12.4
Malay b	1		0.3
Education level
Up to grade five c	2		0.6
Up to Ordinary Level c	153		43.2
Up to Advanced Level d	172		48.6
Degree/ Post graduate d	27		7.6
Occupation	Individual data (n)	Pooled data (n)	Individual data (%)	Pooled data (%)
Not employed e	291	301	82.2	84.5
Self-employed e	10		2.3
Teacher f	13	53	3.7	15.5
Clerical f	27		2.8
Labourer f	8		7.6
Executive f	5		1.4
Household Income
≤ 2 5000	127		35.9
25,001-50,000	131		37
≥ 50,001	96		27.1
Birth order of the child
First	124		35
gSecond	128		36.2
gThird	83		23.4
gFourth	19		5.4
Total	354		100

In further analysis data were combined as follows

^aSinhalese, ^bOther, ^cUp to grade 11 or less, ^dAbove grade 11, ^eUnemployed, ^fEmployed & ^gBirth order second or above