Factors Associated with Female Sterilization in Brazil

Abstract

This study aims to investigate factors associated with female sterilization in Brazil. The analysis is innovative because it adds the time of exposure to the risk of sterilization into survival models. The models control for postpartum duration, age at delivery, parity at delivery, type of delivery, place of delivery, region of residence at the time of interview, color/race, and years of schooling at the time of interview. The main contribution of this analysis is to comprehend the effects of different birth intervals (postpartum duration) on the risk of a woman getting sterilized. Data is from the 2006 Brazilian National Survey on Demography and Health of Children and Women (PNDS). The strongest probability that sterilization might occur was observed among women who gave birth at private hospitals and received support from health insurance companies at childbirth. Female sterilization is also executed in combination with childbirth and cesarean section. The findings suggest that years of schooling do not predict the risk of sterilization. The higher chances of getting sterilized among black women are specific to the public sector at higher-order postpartum duration (interval sterilization).