The contribution of the proximate determinants of fertility to the prevailing rural-urban fertility level, patterns and differentials in Dodoma, Tanzania

The aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of the proximate determinants of fertility to the prevailing fertility levels, patterns and differentials in Dodoma region. Bongaarts' Framework was applied to quantify the existing levels, patterns and differentials of fertility in selected areas of Dodoma region namely: Uhuru, Makole and Kilimani/Tambuka Reli in Dodoma urban district and Chinangali II and Buigiri in Dodoma rural district. It was generally hypothesized that rural areas are associated with high rate of illiteracy, universal marriage, breastfeeding and low prevalence of contraception as compared to urban areas where literacy rate was relatively high, marriage and breastfeeding were becoming less universal and contraception prevalence was relatively high. The study findings showed that the overall contribution of the three proximate determinants of fertility (non-marriage, postpartum non-susceptibility and contraception), in terms of inhibition of TFR, to fertility was 57.8 percent, giving a model TFR of 6.5. Non-marriage alone contributes 29.0 percent as compared to 30.0 and 15.0 percents for non-susceptibility and contraception respectively. For Dodoma Rural, the corresponding values were 49.6, 7.7, 20.0, 33.0 and 6.0 while 65.0, 5.3, 37.3, 27.0 and 24.0 were for Dodoma Urban. With a total contribution of 50.1 percent, women with zero education had TFR equals to 7.6 as the contribution from non-marriage, postpartum nonsusceptability and contraception was 20.0, 37.0 and 1.0 percent respectively. The corresponding values for women with tertiary education were respectively 5.4, 64.6, 50.0, 25.0 and 6.0. This showed that the most important proximate determinants of fertility in Dodoma were postpartum non-susceptibility and non-marriage. The influence on fertility from contraception was in a significant magnitude and that where the influence on fertility from non-marriage and contraception was higher; the overall fertility level was low. Thus it was concluded that raising of age at first marriage and effective use of contraception could be applied as mechanisms to reduce the existing high fertility levels in the region.