Factor Analysis in Women's Autonomy Related to Pregnancy Loss in Indonesia

Abstract

Background: Little is known about the relationship between womens autonomy with pregnancy loss in Indonesia. This study aims to investigate the association of womens autonomy with pregnancy loss among Indonesian women and indicates which autonomy domain that plays the biggest role. Methods: A cross-sectional study design involving a secondary analysis of data from the Indonesia 2012 Demographic and Health Survey was conducted in order to examine the relation of autonomy domain with pregnancy loss among currently married women living with their partner. Principal component factor analysis was conducted to construct three main domains of womens autonomy from several original questions in the survey, namely decision-making power, womens position in the household and attitude toward beating. The outcome of interest was pregnancy loss outcomes while the main independent variable was autonomy domain. Binary logistic regression was performed to determine whether the womens autonomy was associated with pregnancy loss. Data were weighted and adjusted for the complex survey design. Results: Prevalence of pregnancy loss among Indonesian women in this study was 17.8%. Binary logistic regression showed that two womens autonomy domains, womens decision-making power and womens attitude toward beating were remained significantly associated with pregnancy loss, even after adjusting for age, education, working status, age of first child bearing, literacy and area of residency. The decision-making power domain was negatively associated with pregnancy loss (OR 0.960(95% CI 0.929-0.992

p<0.05)) and similar figure was also found in the negative attitudes toward beating (OR 0.966(95% CI 0.935-0.998

p<0.05)) . Conclusion: The result shows that the participation of women in household decision making process and negative attitude toward wife beating appear as an important role in order to decrease the pregnancy loss incidence in Indonesia. Supporting womens empowerment programs, particularly in older age group and campaign to strengthen womens role in the family should be included in womens health policy strategy through encouraging more visible involvement in the decision making process and prevention against domestic violence.