Influence of school support on early marriage experiences and health services utilization among young orphaned women in Zimbabwe.
Winnie Kavulani Luseno, Lei Zhang, Bonita J Iritani and 3 others
PMID 27211856WHAT IT FOUND
Married intervention participants reported more coercion and lower health service use than controls, despite having more education.
Pregnancy was the top reason for marriage in both groups. Most women regretted marrying early and wished they had stayed in school.
Key findings
01Pregnancy was the most common reason for marriage, cited by 10 participants, while coercion was reported by three intervention group participants.
02A majority of women in both groups regretted marrying early, with 82% of controls and 62% of intervention participants stating they would have delayed marriage to stay in school.
03Control group participants reported higher utilization of family planning services (82%) compared to intervention group participants (62%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample size was very small (35 women), limiting the generalizability of the findings. The study population was restricted to rural Shona orphans in Zimbabwe and cannot be generalized to urban populations, other ethnic groups, or non-orphans. Comparisons between groups were descriptive and did not include statistical significance testing due to the small sample size. The study relied on self-reported data for sensitive topics like sexual health and coercion, which may be subject to recall or social desirability bias.
Declared interests
No specific conflicts of interest or funding sources were declared in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that school support interventions fail to improve health outcomes based on this paper. The null or negative trends in health service use and HSV-2 status among intervention participants are drawn from a very small subset of women who married despite the intervention, and the study lacked the power to detect statistical differences.