Early Marriage among&nbsp; young&nbsp; girls in Eastern Ethiopia: trend during 2008-2018

Dureti Abdurahman; Nega Assefa; Yemane Berhane

doi:10.12688/f1000research.55551.1

Home Browse Early Marriage among young girls in Eastern Ethiopia: trend during...

ALL Metrics

Views

Downloads

Get PDF

Get XML

Export

▬

✚

Data Note

Early Marriage among young girls in Eastern Ethiopia: trend during 2008-2018

[version 1; peer review: 1 approved with reservations]

Dureti Abdurahman ¹, Nega Assefa¹, Yemane Berhane²

PUBLISHED 16 Aug 2021

Author details Author details

¹ Department of Public Health, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia
² Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Addis Continental Institute of Public Health, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Dureti Abdurahman
Roles: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

Nega Assefa
Roles: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

Yemane Berhane
Roles: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

OPEN PEER REVIEW

REVIEWER STATUS

This article is included in the Sociology of Health gateway.

Abstract

Early marriage practices undermine girls’ autonomy and seriously affect their physical and mental wellbeing. Monitoring the trends and understanding the drivers is essential in intervening against early marriage. However, many studies on early marriage in Ethiopia are cross-sectional, focusing only on the magnitude at a single point in time. Hence, we extracted data of girls of 10-17 years from Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) database for the period of 2008–2018 in order to examine the trends of early marriage. In this data note we provide the details of a research database of 24,452 girls in the age group of 10-17 years. The extracted data include date of marriage and the girls’ socio-demographic variables. Other variables considered to be potentially associated with timing of marriage were also extracted. The purpose of this publication is to describe the dataset for external researchers who may be interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. This dataset is available at  https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.15034812.

Keywords

Key words: adolescent girls, incidence, early marriage, Ethiopia

Corresponding author: Dureti Abdurahman

Competing interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

Grant information: This work was supported by institutional funds from Haramaya University Women Grant With a research code of HUWG-2017-02-04-01 as a PhD student’s support.
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright: © 2021 Abdurahman D et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

How to cite: Abdurahman D, Assefa N and Berhane Y. Early Marriage among young girls in Eastern Ethiopia: trend during 2008-2018 [version 1; peer review: 1 approved with reservations]. F1000Research 2021, 10:807 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.55551.1) First published: 16 Aug 2021, 10:807 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.55551.1) Latest published: 12 May 2022, 10:807 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.55551.2)

Introduction

Early marriage is any marriage where at least one of the parties is under 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). It undermine girls’ autonomy and seriously affects their physical and mental wellbeing (Nour, 2006; Walker, Mukisa, Hashim, & Ismail, 2013). Ethiopia ranks 15th in the prevalence of early marriage and 5th in the total number of early marriages globally. Nearly 40% of girls in Ethiopia are married before they turn 18 years and approximately 14% are married before their 15th birthday (UNICEF, 2018). Monitoring the trend and understanding the drivers is essential in intervening against early marriage. However, evidence on the effectiveness of interventions from longitudinal community-based studies is scarce. Hence, we extracted data of girls of 10–17 years from the Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) database for the period of 2008–2018 in order to examine the trends of early marriage.

Methods

This data note used data from Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS). The Kersa HDSS is located in the eastern Hararghe Zone of the Oromia regional state in Ethiopia. The initial baseline household and population census’ were conducted in 2007, and the database is updated every six months with registration of demographic (birth, death and migration) and health (reproductive and morbidity) events (Assefa et al., 2016). The data are collected by trained interviewers who are mainly residents in the study Kebele (the smallest administrative unit in Ethiopia). In each round of data collection, the household head or any adult member of the household is interviewed using structured forms that are prepared to capture a specific demographic or health event.

Source of data

Data was extracted from Kersa HDSS database for the period of January 01, 2008 to December 31, 2018 for girls in the age group of 10 to17 years. The extracted data includes date of marriage and girl’s socio-demographic variables. Other variables considered to be potentially associated with the timing of marriage were also extracted. Microsoft Excel 2010 (Microsoft Excel, RRID:SCR_016137) was used to process the data (an open access alternative to Excel 2010 is Google Sheets).

Ethical approval

Kersa HDSS has ethical approval from the Institutional Health Research Ethics Review Committee (IHRERC) of Haramaya University at the initiation of the surveillance system and renewed every five years. The approval written informed consent for KHDSS head office for the sharing of girls’ data was obtained from the IHRERC of Haramaya University, Ethiopia with approval number (IHRERC/177/2018). The accessed data were used for this research only.

Data availability

Datasets are available publicly via:

Figshare: Early Marriage among young girls in Eastern Ethiopia: trend during 2008-2018.

https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.15034812 (Abdurahman et al. 2021).

The project contains the following underlying data.

• Early marriage data.xlsx. (contains data in excel spreadsheet of ten years of marriage data and girl’s socio-demographic variable)

Data are available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC-BY 4.0).

Author contributions

All authors contributed equally from conception, design, data extraction, and statistical analysis to interpretation of data. They also took part in the drafting of the manuscript and final approval for submission.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Haramaya University for funding this study. We extend our gratitude for Addis Continental Institute of Public Health for technical support, as well KHDSS head office of Haramaya university collage of Health and medical sciences and data managers for the sharing of girls’ data.

References

Abdurahman D, Assefa N, Berhane Y: Title page.docx. figshare. Dataset. 2021. Publisher Full Text
Assefa N, Oljira L, Baraki N, et al.: HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. Int J Epidemiol. 2016; 45(1): 94–101. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text | Free Full Text
Nour NM: Health consequences of child marriage in Africa. Emerg Infect Dis. 2006; 12(11): 1644. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text | Free Full Text
OHCHR: Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.2019.
UNICEF: Ending Child Marriage: A profile of progress in Ethiopia.2018.
Walker J-A, Mukisa S, Hashim Y, et al.: Mapping Early Marriage in West Africa: a scan of trends, interventions, what works, best practices and the way forward Lagos: Ford Foundation. West Africa Office. 2013.

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Version 2

VERSION 2 PUBLISHED 16 Aug 2021

Author details Author details

Competing interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Grant information

This work was supported by institutional funds from Haramaya University Women Grant With a research code of HUWG-2017-02-04-01 as a PhD student’s support.
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Article Versions (2)

version 2

Revised

Published: 12 May 2022, 10:807

https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.55551.2

version 1

Published: 16 Aug 2021, 10:807

https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.55551.1

© 2021 Abdurahman D et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Download

Export To

metrics

	Views	Downloads
F1000Research	-	-
PubMed Central Data from PMC are received and updated monthly.	-	-

Citations

SEE MORE DETAILS

CITE

how to cite this article

Abdurahman D, Assefa N and Berhane Y. Early Marriage among young girls in Eastern Ethiopia: trend during 2008-2018 [version 1; peer review: 1 approved with reservations]. F1000Research 2021, 10:807 (https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.55551.1)

NOTE: If applicable, it is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in all citations of this article.

track

receive updates on this article

Track an article to receive email alerts on any updates to this article.

Open Peer Review

Version 1

VERSION 1

PUBLISHED 16 Aug 2021

Views

Reviewer Report 08 Sep 2021

İlknur Yüksel-Kaptanoğlu, Institute of Population Studies, Social Research Methodology Department, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

Approved with Reservations

https://doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.59137.r91981

This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to ... Continue reading

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage, and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15. The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.
Some minor grammar mistakes should be reviewed.

Is the rationale for creating the dataset(s) clearly described?

Yes
Are the protocols appropriate and is the work technically sound?

Yes
Are sufficient details of methods and materials provided to allow replication by others?

No
Are the datasets clearly presented in a useable and accessible format?

Yes

Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise: Domestic violence against women, child, early and forced marriages, qualitative research methods, gender equality

I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard, however I have significant reservations, as outlined above.

CITE

Report a concern

Author Response 12 May 2022

Dureti Abdurahman, Department of Public Health, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia

12 May 2022

Author Response
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we ... Continue reading
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we have provided a response to each comment as follows, and we will incorporate it on the main document.

General comment
This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to explain the data set in a more detailed way before indexing.
My minor concerns are the following:

First comment:

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15.

The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.

Authors’ Response: We greatly appreciate the reviewer’s helpful comment and suggestion
This dataset is used as a great source for researchers who study early marriage and interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. It also enables to generalize the findings for a large community as it is huge in number and shows a trend of early marriage for more than a decade.
Early marriage, or child marriage, is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). Marriages that take place before age 15 are considered “very early marriages.” (UNFPA, 2020). “Early marriage” has been interpreted, as synonymous with “child marriage” or as more inclusive as child marriage. 'Early' does not have to refer solely to age, however, and could be read to include other factors that would make a person unready to consent to marriage (sri, 2012). Although early is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context. Several organizations like World Health Organization, UN for instance, use the term ‘early marriage’ consistently(UNICEF, 2005).
The highest rate of child marriage is in sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 percent of young women marrying before age 18. According to the Ethiopian demography and health survey (EDHS) 2016, the national prevalence of early marriage was 58% (CSA, 2016).

Second Comment
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.

Authors’ Response: Thank you, we appreciate the valuable suggestions. It is explained as suggested.

Methods and Materials
Kersa HDSS is a demographic and health surveillance and research center established in 2007 by Haramaya University to serve as research center and source health and demographics data for Eastern Ethiopia, thus to create a framework for research at the community level and to be a platform for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. Kersa HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. The baseline census was conducted in 2007 and since then has been updated every 6 months, with registration of demographic and health events (Assefa et al., 2016). Data collectors who know the language of the community are permanently recruited and execute the data collection regularly.
This study used data from an open dynamic cohort that gives a leverage of huge set of data from exiting Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) with a sample size of (24,452) that helps to generalize the findings to eastern part of the country.
KHDSS data collection tool lack some important exposure variables that help to assess the socio cultural factors; like social norms, reason for marriage, parental education, occupation and socioeconomic status of the parents, which had a significant effect on early marriage. Hence, could be considered as a limitation of this study.

References

Assefa, N., Oljira, L., Baraki, N., Demena, M., Zelalem, D., Ashenafi, W., & Dedefo, M. (2016). HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(1), 94-101.
CSA. (2016). Ethiopia demographic and health survey. Central Statistical Agency Addis Ababa. Ethiopia ICF International Calverton, Maryland, USA.
OHCHR. (2019). Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.
sri. (2012). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/140, The Girl Child (2012), A/RES/66/140, p. 4; Beijing Platform for Action (1995), L. The Girl Child para. 259.
UNFPA. (2020). Child marriage - Frequently Asked Questions.
UNICEF. (2005). EARLY MARRIAGE: A HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICE: A STATISTICAL EXPLORATION (2005), p. 4. .
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we have provided a response to each comment as follows, and we will incorporate it on the main document.

General comment
This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to explain the data set in a more detailed way before indexing.
My minor concerns are the following:

First comment:

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15.

The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.

Authors’ Response: We greatly appreciate the reviewer’s helpful comment and suggestion
This dataset is used as a great source for researchers who study early marriage and interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. It also enables to generalize the findings for a large community as it is huge in number and shows a trend of early marriage for more than a decade.
Early marriage, or child marriage, is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). Marriages that take place before age 15 are considered “very early marriages.” (UNFPA, 2020). “Early marriage” has been interpreted, as synonymous with “child marriage” or as more inclusive as child marriage. 'Early' does not have to refer solely to age, however, and could be read to include other factors that would make a person unready to consent to marriage (sri, 2012). Although early is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context. Several organizations like World Health Organization, UN for instance, use the term ‘early marriage’ consistently(UNICEF, 2005).
The highest rate of child marriage is in sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 percent of young women marrying before age 18. According to the Ethiopian demography and health survey (EDHS) 2016, the national prevalence of early marriage was 58% (CSA, 2016).

Second Comment
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.

Authors’ Response: Thank you, we appreciate the valuable suggestions. It is explained as suggested.

Methods and Materials
Kersa HDSS is a demographic and health surveillance and research center established in 2007 by Haramaya University to serve as research center and source health and demographics data for Eastern Ethiopia, thus to create a framework for research at the community level and to be a platform for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. Kersa HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. The baseline census was conducted in 2007 and since then has been updated every 6 months, with registration of demographic and health events (Assefa et al., 2016). Data collectors who know the language of the community are permanently recruited and execute the data collection regularly.
This study used data from an open dynamic cohort that gives a leverage of huge set of data from exiting Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) with a sample size of (24,452) that helps to generalize the findings to eastern part of the country.
KHDSS data collection tool lack some important exposure variables that help to assess the socio cultural factors; like social norms, reason for marriage, parental education, occupation and socioeconomic status of the parents, which had a significant effect on early marriage. Hence, could be considered as a limitation of this study.

References

Assefa, N., Oljira, L., Baraki, N., Demena, M., Zelalem, D., Ashenafi, W., & Dedefo, M. (2016). HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(1), 94-101.
CSA. (2016). Ethiopia demographic and health survey. Central Statistical Agency Addis Ababa. Ethiopia ICF International Calverton, Maryland, USA.
OHCHR. (2019). Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.
sri. (2012). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/140, The Girl Child (2012), A/RES/66/140, p. 4; Beijing Platform for Action (1995), L. The Girl Child para. 259.
UNFPA. (2020). Child marriage - Frequently Asked Questions.
UNICEF. (2005). EARLY MARRIAGE: A HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICE: A STATISTICAL EXPLORATION (2005), p. 4. .
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed. Close
Report a concern
Author Response 12 May 2022

Dureti Abdurahman, Department of Public Health, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia

12 May 2022

Author Response
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we ... Continue reading
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we have provided a response to each comment as follows, and we will incorporate it on the main document.

General comment
This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to explain the data set in a more detailed way before indexing.

My minor concerns are the following:

First comment:

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15.|

The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.

Authors’ Response: We greatly appreciate the reviewer’s helpful comment and suggestion.

This dataset is used as a great source for researchers who study early marriage and interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. It also enables to generalize the findings for a large community as it is huge in number and shows a trend of early marriage for more than a decade.

Early marriage, or child marriage, is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). Marriages that take place before age 15 are considered “very early marriages.” (UNFPA, 2020). “Early marriage” has been interpreted, as synonymous with “child marriage” or as more inclusive as child marriage. 'Early' does not have to refer solely to age, however, and could be read to include other factors that would make a person unready to consent to marriage (sri, 2012). Although early is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context. Several organizations like World Health Organization, UN for instance, use the term ‘early marriage’ consistently (UNICEF, 2005).

The highest rate of child marriage is in sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 percent of young women marrying before age 18. According to the Ethiopian demography and health survey (EDHS) 2016, the national prevalence of early marriage was 58% (CSA, 2016).

Second Comment
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.

Authors’ Response: Thank you, we appreciate the valuable suggestions. It is explained as suggested.

Methods and Materials

Kersa HDSS is a demographic and health surveillance and research center established in 2007 by Haramaya University to serve as research center and source health and demographics data for Eastern Ethiopia, thus to create a framework for research at the community level and to be a platform for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. Kersa HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. The baseline census was conducted in 2007 and since then has been updated every 6 months, with registration of demographic and health events (Assefa et al., 2016). Data collectors who know the language of the community are permanently recruited and execute the data collection regularly.

This study used data from an open dynamic cohort that gives a leverage of huge set of data from exiting Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) with a sample size of (24,452) that helps to generalize the findings to eastern part of the country.
KHDSS data collection tool lack some important exposure variables that help to assess the socio cultural factors; like social norms, reason for marriage, parental education, occupation and socioeconomic status of the parents, which had a significant effect on early marriage. Hence, could be considered as a limitation of this study.

References

Assefa, N., Oljira, L., Baraki, N., Demena, M., Zelalem, D., Ashenafi, W., & Dedefo, M. (2016). HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(1), 94-101.
CSA. (2016). Ethiopia demographic and health survey. Central Statistical Agency Addis Ababa. Ethiopia ICF International Calverton, Maryland, USA.
OHCHR. (2019). Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.
sri. (2012). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/140, The Girl Child (2012), A/RES/66/140, p. 4; Beijing Platform for Action (1995), L. The Girl Child para. 259.
UNFPA. (2020). Child marriage - Frequently Asked Questions.
UNICEF. (2005). EARLY MARRIAGE: A HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICE: A STATISTICAL EXPLORATION (2005), p. 4. .
VIEW LESS
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we have provided a response to each comment as follows, and we will incorporate it on the main document.

General comment
This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to explain the data set in a more detailed way before indexing.

My minor concerns are the following:

First comment:

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15.|

The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.

Authors’ Response: We greatly appreciate the reviewer’s helpful comment and suggestion.

This dataset is used as a great source for researchers who study early marriage and interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. It also enables to generalize the findings for a large community as it is huge in number and shows a trend of early marriage for more than a decade.

Early marriage, or child marriage, is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). Marriages that take place before age 15 are considered “very early marriages.” (UNFPA, 2020). “Early marriage” has been interpreted, as synonymous with “child marriage” or as more inclusive as child marriage. 'Early' does not have to refer solely to age, however, and could be read to include other factors that would make a person unready to consent to marriage (sri, 2012). Although early is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context. Several organizations like World Health Organization, UN for instance, use the term ‘early marriage’ consistently (UNICEF, 2005).

The highest rate of child marriage is in sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 percent of young women marrying before age 18. According to the Ethiopian demography and health survey (EDHS) 2016, the national prevalence of early marriage was 58% (CSA, 2016).

Second Comment
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.

Authors’ Response: Thank you, we appreciate the valuable suggestions. It is explained as suggested.

Methods and Materials

Kersa HDSS is a demographic and health surveillance and research center established in 2007 by Haramaya University to serve as research center and source health and demographics data for Eastern Ethiopia, thus to create a framework for research at the community level and to be a platform for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. Kersa HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. The baseline census was conducted in 2007 and since then has been updated every 6 months, with registration of demographic and health events (Assefa et al., 2016). Data collectors who know the language of the community are permanently recruited and execute the data collection regularly.

This study used data from an open dynamic cohort that gives a leverage of huge set of data from exiting Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) with a sample size of (24,452) that helps to generalize the findings to eastern part of the country.
KHDSS data collection tool lack some important exposure variables that help to assess the socio cultural factors; like social norms, reason for marriage, parental education, occupation and socioeconomic status of the parents, which had a significant effect on early marriage. Hence, could be considered as a limitation of this study.

References

Assefa, N., Oljira, L., Baraki, N., Demena, M., Zelalem, D., Ashenafi, W., & Dedefo, M. (2016). HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(1), 94-101.
CSA. (2016). Ethiopia demographic and health survey. Central Statistical Agency Addis Ababa. Ethiopia ICF International Calverton, Maryland, USA.
OHCHR. (2019). Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.
sri. (2012). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/140, The Girl Child (2012), A/RES/66/140, p. 4; Beijing Platform for Action (1995), L. The Girl Child para. 259.
UNFPA. (2020). Child marriage - Frequently Asked Questions.
UNICEF. (2005). EARLY MARRIAGE: A HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICE: A STATISTICAL EXPLORATION (2005), p. 4. .
VIEW LESS
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed. Close
Report a concern
Respond or Comment

COMMENTS ON THIS REPORT

Author Response 12 May 2022

Dureti Abdurahman, Department of Public Health, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia

12 May 2022

Author Response
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we ... Continue reading
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we have provided a response to each comment as follows, and we will incorporate it on the main document.

General comment
This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to explain the data set in a more detailed way before indexing.
My minor concerns are the following:

First comment:

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15.

The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.

Authors’ Response: We greatly appreciate the reviewer’s helpful comment and suggestion
This dataset is used as a great source for researchers who study early marriage and interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. It also enables to generalize the findings for a large community as it is huge in number and shows a trend of early marriage for more than a decade.
Early marriage, or child marriage, is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). Marriages that take place before age 15 are considered “very early marriages.” (UNFPA, 2020). “Early marriage” has been interpreted, as synonymous with “child marriage” or as more inclusive as child marriage. 'Early' does not have to refer solely to age, however, and could be read to include other factors that would make a person unready to consent to marriage (sri, 2012). Although early is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context. Several organizations like World Health Organization, UN for instance, use the term ‘early marriage’ consistently(UNICEF, 2005).
The highest rate of child marriage is in sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 percent of young women marrying before age 18. According to the Ethiopian demography and health survey (EDHS) 2016, the national prevalence of early marriage was 58% (CSA, 2016).

Second Comment
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.

Authors’ Response: Thank you, we appreciate the valuable suggestions. It is explained as suggested.

Methods and Materials
Kersa HDSS is a demographic and health surveillance and research center established in 2007 by Haramaya University to serve as research center and source health and demographics data for Eastern Ethiopia, thus to create a framework for research at the community level and to be a platform for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. Kersa HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. The baseline census was conducted in 2007 and since then has been updated every 6 months, with registration of demographic and health events (Assefa et al., 2016). Data collectors who know the language of the community are permanently recruited and execute the data collection regularly.
This study used data from an open dynamic cohort that gives a leverage of huge set of data from exiting Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) with a sample size of (24,452) that helps to generalize the findings to eastern part of the country.
KHDSS data collection tool lack some important exposure variables that help to assess the socio cultural factors; like social norms, reason for marriage, parental education, occupation and socioeconomic status of the parents, which had a significant effect on early marriage. Hence, could be considered as a limitation of this study.

References

Assefa, N., Oljira, L., Baraki, N., Demena, M., Zelalem, D., Ashenafi, W., & Dedefo, M. (2016). HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(1), 94-101.
CSA. (2016). Ethiopia demographic and health survey. Central Statistical Agency Addis Ababa. Ethiopia ICF International Calverton, Maryland, USA.
OHCHR. (2019). Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.
sri. (2012). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/140, The Girl Child (2012), A/RES/66/140, p. 4; Beijing Platform for Action (1995), L. The Girl Child para. 259.
UNFPA. (2020). Child marriage - Frequently Asked Questions.
UNICEF. (2005). EARLY MARRIAGE: A HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICE: A STATISTICAL EXPLORATION (2005), p. 4. .
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we have provided a response to each comment as follows, and we will incorporate it on the main document.

General comment
This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to explain the data set in a more detailed way before indexing.
My minor concerns are the following:

First comment:

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15.

The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.

Authors’ Response: We greatly appreciate the reviewer’s helpful comment and suggestion
This dataset is used as a great source for researchers who study early marriage and interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. It also enables to generalize the findings for a large community as it is huge in number and shows a trend of early marriage for more than a decade.
Early marriage, or child marriage, is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). Marriages that take place before age 15 are considered “very early marriages.” (UNFPA, 2020). “Early marriage” has been interpreted, as synonymous with “child marriage” or as more inclusive as child marriage. 'Early' does not have to refer solely to age, however, and could be read to include other factors that would make a person unready to consent to marriage (sri, 2012). Although early is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context. Several organizations like World Health Organization, UN for instance, use the term ‘early marriage’ consistently(UNICEF, 2005).
The highest rate of child marriage is in sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 percent of young women marrying before age 18. According to the Ethiopian demography and health survey (EDHS) 2016, the national prevalence of early marriage was 58% (CSA, 2016).

Second Comment
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.

Authors’ Response: Thank you, we appreciate the valuable suggestions. It is explained as suggested.

Methods and Materials
Kersa HDSS is a demographic and health surveillance and research center established in 2007 by Haramaya University to serve as research center and source health and demographics data for Eastern Ethiopia, thus to create a framework for research at the community level and to be a platform for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. Kersa HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. The baseline census was conducted in 2007 and since then has been updated every 6 months, with registration of demographic and health events (Assefa et al., 2016). Data collectors who know the language of the community are permanently recruited and execute the data collection regularly.
This study used data from an open dynamic cohort that gives a leverage of huge set of data from exiting Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) with a sample size of (24,452) that helps to generalize the findings to eastern part of the country.
KHDSS data collection tool lack some important exposure variables that help to assess the socio cultural factors; like social norms, reason for marriage, parental education, occupation and socioeconomic status of the parents, which had a significant effect on early marriage. Hence, could be considered as a limitation of this study.

References

Assefa, N., Oljira, L., Baraki, N., Demena, M., Zelalem, D., Ashenafi, W., & Dedefo, M. (2016). HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(1), 94-101.
CSA. (2016). Ethiopia demographic and health survey. Central Statistical Agency Addis Ababa. Ethiopia ICF International Calverton, Maryland, USA.
OHCHR. (2019). Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.
sri. (2012). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/140, The Girl Child (2012), A/RES/66/140, p. 4; Beijing Platform for Action (1995), L. The Girl Child para. 259.
UNFPA. (2020). Child marriage - Frequently Asked Questions.
UNICEF. (2005). EARLY MARRIAGE: A HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICE: A STATISTICAL EXPLORATION (2005), p. 4. .
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed. Close
Report a concern
Author Response 12 May 2022

Dureti Abdurahman, Department of Public Health, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia

12 May 2022

Author Response
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we ... Continue reading
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we have provided a response to each comment as follows, and we will incorporate it on the main document.

General comment
This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to explain the data set in a more detailed way before indexing.

My minor concerns are the following:

First comment:

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15.|

The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.

Authors’ Response: We greatly appreciate the reviewer’s helpful comment and suggestion.

This dataset is used as a great source for researchers who study early marriage and interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. It also enables to generalize the findings for a large community as it is huge in number and shows a trend of early marriage for more than a decade.

Early marriage, or child marriage, is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). Marriages that take place before age 15 are considered “very early marriages.” (UNFPA, 2020). “Early marriage” has been interpreted, as synonymous with “child marriage” or as more inclusive as child marriage. 'Early' does not have to refer solely to age, however, and could be read to include other factors that would make a person unready to consent to marriage (sri, 2012). Although early is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context. Several organizations like World Health Organization, UN for instance, use the term ‘early marriage’ consistently (UNICEF, 2005).

The highest rate of child marriage is in sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 percent of young women marrying before age 18. According to the Ethiopian demography and health survey (EDHS) 2016, the national prevalence of early marriage was 58% (CSA, 2016).

Second Comment
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.

Authors’ Response: Thank you, we appreciate the valuable suggestions. It is explained as suggested.

Methods and Materials

Kersa HDSS is a demographic and health surveillance and research center established in 2007 by Haramaya University to serve as research center and source health and demographics data for Eastern Ethiopia, thus to create a framework for research at the community level and to be a platform for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. Kersa HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. The baseline census was conducted in 2007 and since then has been updated every 6 months, with registration of demographic and health events (Assefa et al., 2016). Data collectors who know the language of the community are permanently recruited and execute the data collection regularly.

This study used data from an open dynamic cohort that gives a leverage of huge set of data from exiting Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) with a sample size of (24,452) that helps to generalize the findings to eastern part of the country.
KHDSS data collection tool lack some important exposure variables that help to assess the socio cultural factors; like social norms, reason for marriage, parental education, occupation and socioeconomic status of the parents, which had a significant effect on early marriage. Hence, could be considered as a limitation of this study.

References

Assefa, N., Oljira, L., Baraki, N., Demena, M., Zelalem, D., Ashenafi, W., & Dedefo, M. (2016). HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(1), 94-101.
CSA. (2016). Ethiopia demographic and health survey. Central Statistical Agency Addis Ababa. Ethiopia ICF International Calverton, Maryland, USA.
OHCHR. (2019). Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.
sri. (2012). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/140, The Girl Child (2012), A/RES/66/140, p. 4; Beijing Platform for Action (1995), L. The Girl Child para. 259.
UNFPA. (2020). Child marriage - Frequently Asked Questions.
UNICEF. (2005). EARLY MARRIAGE: A HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICE: A STATISTICAL EXPLORATION (2005), p. 4. .
VIEW LESS
Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we have provided a response to each comment as follows, and we will incorporate it on the main document.

General comment
This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to explain the data set in a more detailed way before indexing.

My minor concerns are the following:

First comment:

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15.|

The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.

Authors’ Response: We greatly appreciate the reviewer’s helpful comment and suggestion.

This dataset is used as a great source for researchers who study early marriage and interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. It also enables to generalize the findings for a large community as it is huge in number and shows a trend of early marriage for more than a decade.

Early marriage, or child marriage, is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). Marriages that take place before age 15 are considered “very early marriages.” (UNFPA, 2020). “Early marriage” has been interpreted, as synonymous with “child marriage” or as more inclusive as child marriage. 'Early' does not have to refer solely to age, however, and could be read to include other factors that would make a person unready to consent to marriage (sri, 2012). Although early is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context. Several organizations like World Health Organization, UN for instance, use the term ‘early marriage’ consistently (UNICEF, 2005).

The highest rate of child marriage is in sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 percent of young women marrying before age 18. According to the Ethiopian demography and health survey (EDHS) 2016, the national prevalence of early marriage was 58% (CSA, 2016).

Second Comment
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.

Authors’ Response: Thank you, we appreciate the valuable suggestions. It is explained as suggested.

Methods and Materials

Kersa HDSS is a demographic and health surveillance and research center established in 2007 by Haramaya University to serve as research center and source health and demographics data for Eastern Ethiopia, thus to create a framework for research at the community level and to be a platform for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. Kersa HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. The baseline census was conducted in 2007 and since then has been updated every 6 months, with registration of demographic and health events (Assefa et al., 2016). Data collectors who know the language of the community are permanently recruited and execute the data collection regularly.

This study used data from an open dynamic cohort that gives a leverage of huge set of data from exiting Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) with a sample size of (24,452) that helps to generalize the findings to eastern part of the country.
KHDSS data collection tool lack some important exposure variables that help to assess the socio cultural factors; like social norms, reason for marriage, parental education, occupation and socioeconomic status of the parents, which had a significant effect on early marriage. Hence, could be considered as a limitation of this study.

References

Assefa, N., Oljira, L., Baraki, N., Demena, M., Zelalem, D., Ashenafi, W., & Dedefo, M. (2016). HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(1), 94-101.
CSA. (2016). Ethiopia demographic and health survey. Central Statistical Agency Addis Ababa. Ethiopia ICF International Calverton, Maryland, USA.
OHCHR. (2019). Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.
sri. (2012). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/140, The Girl Child (2012), A/RES/66/140, p. 4; Beijing Platform for Action (1995), L. The Girl Child para. 259.
UNFPA. (2020). Child marriage - Frequently Asked Questions.
UNICEF. (2005). EARLY MARRIAGE: A HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICE: A STATISTICAL EXPLORATION (2005), p. 4. .
VIEW LESS
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed. Close
Report a concern

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Version 2

VERSION 2 PUBLISHED 16 Aug 2021

Open Peer Review

Reviewer Status

Reviewer Reports

	Invited Reviewers
	1	2
Version 2 (revision) 12 May 22	read	read
Version 1 16 Aug 21	read

İlknur Yüksel-Kaptanoğlu, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey
Sarni Berliana, Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Statistik, Jakarta, Indonesia

Comments on this article

All Comments(0)

Add a comment

Browse by related subjects

Back to all reports

Reviewer Report

6 Views

13 Jul 2023 | for Version 2

Sarni Berliana, Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Statistik, Jakarta, Indonesia

6 Views Cite this report Responses(1)

Approved

The Kersa HDSS dataset for 2008-2018 includes more than 80,000 observations. The available variables include ethnicity, religion (Muslim, other), occupation (student, unemployed, other), place of residence (urban/rural), education level, age at survey (10-14, 15-17), and trend at marriage (10-14, 15-17). The authors admitted that the data lack of some important variables related to early marriage. However, the available data has relevant information that can be used for research on early marriage.

Is the rationale for creating the dataset(s) clearly described?

Yes
Are the protocols appropriate and is the work technically sound?

Yes
Are sufficient details of methods and materials provided to allow replication by others?

Yes
Are the datasets clearly presented in a useable and accessible format?

Yes

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise

Statistics, Population Studies

I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.

Respond to this report

Responses (1)

Back to all reports

Reviewer Report

8 Views

21 Jun 2022 | for Version 2

İlknur Yüksel-Kaptanoğlu, Institute of Population Studies, Social Research Methodology Department, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

8 Views Cite this report Responses(0)

Approved

Thank you for the revisions.

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise

Domestic violence against women, child, early and forced marriages, qualitative research methods, gender equality

I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.

Respond to this report

Responses (0)

Back to all reports

Reviewer Report

43 Views

08 Sep 2021 | for Version 1

İlknur Yüksel-Kaptanoğlu, Institute of Population Studies, Social Research Methodology Department, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

43 Views Cite this report Responses(2)

Approved With Reservations

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage, and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15. The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.
Some minor grammar mistakes should be reviewed.

Is the rationale for creating the dataset(s) clearly described?

Yes
Are the protocols appropriate and is the work technically sound?

Yes
Are sufficient details of methods and materials provided to allow replication by others?

No
Are the datasets clearly presented in a useable and accessible format?

Yes

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise

Domestic violence against women, child, early and forced marriages, qualitative research methods, gender equality

Respond to this report

Responses (2)

Author Response

12 May 2022

Dureti Abdurahman, Department of Public Health, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia

Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we have provided a response to each comment as follows, and we will incorporate it on the main document.

General comment
This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to explain the data set in a more detailed way before indexing.
My minor concerns are the following:

First comment:

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15.
The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.

Authors’ Response: We greatly appreciate the reviewer’s helpful comment and suggestion
This dataset is used as a great source for researchers who study early marriage and interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. It also enables to generalize the findings for a large community as it is huge in number and shows a trend of early marriage for more than a decade.
Early marriage, or child marriage, is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). Marriages that take place before age 15 are considered “very early marriages.” (UNFPA, 2020). “Early marriage” has been interpreted, as synonymous with “child marriage” or as more inclusive as child marriage. 'Early' does not have to refer solely to age, however, and could be read to include other factors that would make a person unready to consent to marriage (sri, 2012). Although early is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context. Several organizations like World Health Organization, UN for instance, use the term ‘early marriage’ consistently(UNICEF, 2005).
The highest rate of child marriage is in sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 percent of young women marrying before age 18. According to the Ethiopian demography and health survey (EDHS) 2016, the national prevalence of early marriage was 58% (CSA, 2016).

Second Comment
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.

Authors’ Response: Thank you, we appreciate the valuable suggestions. It is explained as suggested.

Methods and Materials
Kersa HDSS is a demographic and health surveillance and research center established in 2007 by Haramaya University to serve as research center and source health and demographics data for Eastern Ethiopia, thus to create a framework for research at the community level and to be a platform for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. Kersa HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. The baseline census was conducted in 2007 and since then has been updated every 6 months, with registration of demographic and health events (Assefa et al., 2016). Data collectors who know the language of the community are permanently recruited and execute the data collection regularly.
This study used data from an open dynamic cohort that gives a leverage of huge set of data from exiting Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) with a sample size of (24,452) that helps to generalize the findings to eastern part of the country.
KHDSS data collection tool lack some important exposure variables that help to assess the socio cultural factors; like social norms, reason for marriage, parental education, occupation and socioeconomic status of the parents, which had a significant effect on early marriage. Hence, could be considered as a limitation of this study.

References

Assefa, N., Oljira, L., Baraki, N., Demena, M., Zelalem, D., Ashenafi, W., & Dedefo, M. (2016). HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(1), 94-101.
CSA. (2016). Ethiopia demographic and health survey. Central Statistical Agency Addis Ababa. Ethiopia ICF International Calverton, Maryland, USA.
OHCHR. (2019). Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.
sri. (2012). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/140, The Girl Child (2012), A/RES/66/140, p. 4; Beijing Platform for Action (1995), L. The Girl Child para. 259.
UNFPA. (2020). Child marriage - Frequently Asked Questions.
UNICEF. (2005). EARLY MARRIAGE: A HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICE: A STATISTICAL EXPLORATION (2005), p. 4. .

View more View less

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Author Response

12 May 2022

Dureti Abdurahman, Department of Public Health, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia

Dear reviewer
We greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth to improve our paper. We benefited a lot from their insightful comments and suggestions. Based on the suggestions, we have provided a response to each comment as follows, and we will incorporate it on the main document.

General comment
This data note describes the data set of Kersa Health and Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) for the use of secondary analysis. It is appropriate for the publication in F1000 research. However, some parts of this data note needs information to explain the data set in a more detailed way before indexing.

My minor concerns are the following:

First comment:

Introduction section should be elaborated by explaining the benefits of a data set for researchers who study child marriages. The definitions of early marriage and the choice of using early marriage instead of child marriage should be explained. Since, in many data sets it is measured by the age of marriage before 18 or 15.|
The reference time should be included about the prevalence of child marriage of Ethiopia.

Authors’ Response: We greatly appreciate the reviewer’s helpful comment and suggestion.

This dataset is used as a great source for researchers who study early marriage and interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. It also enables to generalize the findings for a large community as it is huge in number and shows a trend of early marriage for more than a decade.

Early marriage, or child marriage, is defined as the marriage or union between two people in which one or both parties are younger than 18 years of age (OHCHR, 2019). Marriages that take place before age 15 are considered “very early marriages.” (UNFPA, 2020). “Early marriage” has been interpreted, as synonymous with “child marriage” or as more inclusive as child marriage. 'Early' does not have to refer solely to age, however, and could be read to include other factors that would make a person unready to consent to marriage (sri, 2012). Although early is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context. Several organizations like World Health Organization, UN for instance, use the term ‘early marriage’ consistently (UNICEF, 2005).

The highest rate of child marriage is in sub-Saharan Africa, with 37 percent of young women marrying before age 18. According to the Ethiopian demography and health survey (EDHS) 2016, the national prevalence of early marriage was 58% (CSA, 2016).

Second Comment
In the material and method section (it must be named as), more explanation is needed about the system of KERSA HDHSS. The aim of the system in general, sample size, how data is collected, what are the other specific demographic events, other variables and what are the limitations of the data set some of the questions that should be mentioned.

Authors’ Response: Thank you, we appreciate the valuable suggestions. It is explained as suggested.

Methods and Materials

Kersa HDSS is a demographic and health surveillance and research center established in 2007 by Haramaya University to serve as research center and source health and demographics data for Eastern Ethiopia, thus to create a framework for research at the community level and to be a platform for various health related research by the college of Health and Medical Sciences in Haramaya University. Kersa HDSS does monitoring demographic events such as birth, death, marital status change and migration; and health related conditions such as pregnancy, immunization, and morbidity among children and adults. The baseline census was conducted in 2007 and since then has been updated every 6 months, with registration of demographic and health events (Assefa et al., 2016). Data collectors who know the language of the community are permanently recruited and execute the data collection regularly.

This study used data from an open dynamic cohort that gives a leverage of huge set of data from exiting Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) with a sample size of (24,452) that helps to generalize the findings to eastern part of the country.
KHDSS data collection tool lack some important exposure variables that help to assess the socio cultural factors; like social norms, reason for marriage, parental education, occupation and socioeconomic status of the parents, which had a significant effect on early marriage. Hence, could be considered as a limitation of this study.

References

Assefa, N., Oljira, L., Baraki, N., Demena, M., Zelalem, D., Ashenafi, W., & Dedefo, M. (2016). HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. International Journal of Epidemiology, 45(1), 94-101.
CSA. (2016). Ethiopia demographic and health survey. Central Statistical Agency Addis Ababa. Ethiopia ICF International Calverton, Maryland, USA.
OHCHR. (2019). Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.
sri. (2012). United Nations General Assembly Resolution 66/140, The Girl Child (2012), A/RES/66/140, p. 4; Beijing Platform for Action (1995), L. The Girl Child para. 259.
UNFPA. (2020). Child marriage - Frequently Asked Questions.
UNICEF. (2005). EARLY MARRIAGE: A HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICE: A STATISTICAL EXPLORATION (2005), p. 4. .
VIEW LESS

View more View less

Competing Interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Alongside their report, reviewers assign a status to the article:

Approved - the paper is scientifically sound in its current form and only minor, if any, improvements are suggested

Approved with reservations - A number of small changes, sometimes more significant revisions are required to address specific details and improve the papers academic merit.

Not approved - fundamental flaws in the paper seriously undermine the findings and conclusions

[1] Abdurahman D, Assefa N, Berhane Y: Title page.docx. figshare. Dataset. 2021. Publisher Full Text

[2] Assefa N, Oljira L, Baraki N, et al.: HDSS profile: the Kersa health and demographic surveillance system. Int J Epidemiol. 2016; 45(1): 94–101. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text | Free Full Text

[3] Nour NM: Health consequences of child marriage in Africa. Emerg Infect Dis. 2006; 12(11): 1644. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text | Free Full Text

[4] OHCHR: Child and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings.2019.

[5] UNICEF: Ending Child Marriage: A profile of progress in Ethiopia.2018.

[6] Walker J-A, Mukisa S, Hashim Y, et al.: Mapping Early Marriage in West Africa: a scan of trends, interventions, what works, best practices and the way forward Lagos: Ford Foundation. West Africa Office. 2013.

Early Marriage among young girls in Eastern Ethiopia: trend during 2008-2018

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Methods

Source of data

Ethical approval

Data availability

Author contributions

Acknowledgments

References

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Open Peer Review

Comments on this article Comments (0)

Open Peer Review

Reviewer Status

Reviewer Reports

Comments on this article

Browse by related subjects

Competing Interests Policy

Stay Updated