Teshome D. Nimani ^1* Eyob e. Tadese ² fikadu W. Butta ² Zinabu B. Tadese ³

• ¹ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, College of Health and Medical Sciences, Haramaya University, Harar, Ethiopia
• ² College of Health Sciences, Mettu university, Mettu, Ethiopia
• ³ Department of Public Health, College of Medical and Health Science, Samara University, Samara, Ethiopia

Introduction: Most new HIV infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa due to premarital, likely experiences of abuse, exploitation, intimate partner violence, murder, and suicide. Transient nature of the relationship, cohabiting young females are frequently at risk for poor mental health following disagreements. This study's aim was to predictors of premarital cohabitation timing among young women in Ethiopia Method: Secondary data from the 2016 Ethiopian Health and Demographic Survey was analyzed. The study comprised a weighted sample of 6,142 young women. A weighted descriptive analysis of graphs, frequency tables, medians, and percentiles was performed to describe the study participants. The Akaike information criteria were used to choose the bestshared frailty model for the data. Final measures of effect size included the adjusted hazard ratio, both of which had a p-value of less than 0.05.Result: Premarital cohabitation was reported to have a median age of 16 years (IQR, 15-18 years). Woman's age (AHR = 0.795; 95 percent CI: 0.761-0.868) was one of the independent predictors of time to premarital cohabitation. For primary, secondary, and higher education, respectively, 0.733 (95 percent CI: 0.607, 0.959) and 0.610 (95 percent CI: 0.589, 0.632) were seen among women who can read and write (AHR = 0.896; 95 percent CI: 0.872, 0.920).Women with access to the media (AHR = 0.722, 95% CI: 0.510, 0.963).The most important idea is that educational level, access to media, age, and literacy are the most significant factors for the time-to-premarital cohabitation rate.