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Article History

Received: 24 July 2025

Accepted: 30 March 2026

First Online: 1 April 2026

Declarations

:

: The study was made possible by obtaining a permission letter from after an online request for access to sub-Saharan African DHS data. The datasets were treated with total confidence. This study was based on secondary data from the Sub-Saharan DHS. Informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, and privacy of study participants are already ethically handled by the DHS office, so independent consent is not applicable for us. The data was not used outside of this study.

: Informed consent and anonymity do not apply to our study, as these were done after the responsible implementing institution collected the data.

: The authors declare no competing interests.