Table 1 Definitions and measurement of key variables

Unmet need for family planning

Fecund women of reproductive age who did not desire to have children at the time of the survey but were not using any modern methods of contraception.

Combined measure of fertility intention (in this case not wanting to have a child either due to need for spacing children or did not need to have any more children) and use of contraceptive method (in this case not using contraceptive method).

Women living with HIV

Women living with the Human Immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) ascertained through a positive HIV blood test result conducted during the survey.

An HIV testing algorithm with high diagnostic accuracy was used during the surveys to ascertain HIV sero-status. Constituted women who had prior knowledge of HIV positive sero-status which was still ascertained through confirmatory test and women who did not have prior knowledge of their HIV sero-status and had an HIV positive test result.

Wealth index

Level of women’s household wealth.

Calculated and provided in DHS data set as standard household wealth measurements constructed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) categorizing wealth into five levels of: poorest, poorer, middle, richer, and richest.

Year

The year during which the DHS was conducted.

Data sets provided by year of the survey where variables of interest were extracted.

Residence

Geographic entity where a woman was residing at the time of the survey classified as urban or rural.

DHS adopts country definition of what constitutes urban or rural.

Education

Education level attained by woman.

Highest level of formal education attained as reported by study participant.

Age

Age of woman (in years) at the time of survey data collection.

Age collected as a continuous variable and categorized into five-year age groups. DHS collects data from women aged 15 to 49 years.