Health Co-morbidities and Early Marriage in Women of a Rural Area of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Early marriage is defined as the marriage of a young person less than 18 years. Early marriage is more prevalent in South Asia as more than half of all child marriage occurs here. Thirty-seven percent of girls in Nepal marry before age 18 years. This study was done to find out the health consequences of early marriage in women of a rural area of Nepal. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from 10(th) to 15(th) Feb 2020 February in 358 women from Panauti, Kavrepalchowk. The convenient sampling method was used. Ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Committee. Economic status was assessed by using Kuppuswamy's socioeconomic scale. The collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science version 20. Point estimate at 95% confidence interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. RESULTS: The prevalence of early marriage was 187 (52.2%) (47.03 to 57.37 at 95% confidence interval). One hundred sixteen (62%) early marriage women had gynecological problems followed by depression problem 85 (45.5%) and miscarriage 32 (17.1%). The mean age of marriage was 17.2 years. The majority, i.e. 167 (89.3%) of respondents who married earlier were Hindu by religion. Early marriage was observed in 104 (55.6%) of illiterate women. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of early marriage was high. Early married women had a lower level of socio-economic status, lower level of education, which harmed the participants' health status.