An Examination into the Interaction between Fertility and HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Ghana and Zimbabwe

Marsha Brown, University of Western Ontario
Alain Gagnon, University of Western Ontario

The study is a comparative examination of the factors influencing Sub-Sahara’s fertility patterns. The paper approaches fertility from a multifaceted perspective incorporating the context of HIV/AIDS and its role in the current fertility transition. To assess the HIV context, the biological impact of the epidemic will be analyzed in two countries: Ghana in the nascent stage and Zimbabwe in the generalized phase. The original data was collected by the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) 2005 for Zimbabwe and 2003 for Ghana using a two-stage stratified random sampling design. The factors are age, area of residence, union status, educational attainment, age of first sexual intercourse, fecundity, exposure to recent sexual activity, ever terminated pregnancy, contraceptive usage, children ever born and HIV status. Therefore the paper hopes to uncover the interaction between fertility and HIV/AIDS within Sub-Saharan Africa.