Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health · Published 2026-05-29 · DOI 10.1016/j.cegh.2026.102395
Tesfaye Deribe Bedada, Andualem Addisu Birlie, Tamir Wondim Desta, Samuel Hailegebreal
Background: Risky health behaviors pose a significant public health challenge that can adversely impact the health of women and their families. Nevertheless, there have been limited studies that have employed spatial analysis to map risky health behaviors and associated factors using the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). Objective: To examine the spatial distribution and identify sociodemographic factors of risky health behaviors among women in Ethiopia using data from the 2016 EDHS. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the 2016 EDHS, including 15,683 women of reproductive age. For spatial analyses, 21 clusters with zero coordinates were excluded, resulting in 622 clusters included in the analysis. For data cleaning STATA version 17 and ArcGIS version 10.8 were used to perform spatial analysis. The Bernoulli model in SaTScan was used to identify spatial clusters. Geographically weighted regression was employed to identify associated factors, considering significance at p < 0.05. Results: In Ethiopia, 43.8% of women reported engaging in risky health behaviors. The spatial distribution of risky health behaviors was non-random in Ethiopia. Statistically significant high hot spots were found in Tigray, Amhara, and Addis Ababa. The primary cluster consisted of 358 locations and was statistically significant, encompassing areas in Tigray, Amhara, Addis Ababa, and Dire Dawa. A geographically weighted regression revealed that separated marital status, maternal secondary education, middle wealth index, and male headed of household were significant factors associated with risky health behaviors. Conclusions: The spatial distribution of risky health behaviors was varied across Ethiopia regions. These findings underscore the need for targeted, location-specific interventions, including community-based programs, health education, and behavioral counseling, to effectively reduce the risky health behaviors.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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Bedada, T., Birlie, A., Desta, T., et al. (2026). Geospatial analysis of risky health behaviors and sociodemographic factors among reproductive age women in Ethiopia. Clinical Epidemiology and Global Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cegh.2026.102395