Pre-marital fertility in Liberia

Understanding premarital pregnancies among adolescents and young women in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

In developing countries, young women between 15 and 24 years of age account for more than 40% of unsafe abortions due to the high number of unwanted and/or out-of-wedlock pregnancies. However, much about the profile of adolescents and young women who usually experience premarital pregnancies remains unknown. This study sought to understand the risk of pregnancy before marriage among adolescents and young women in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. By using longitudinal data from a demographic surveillance system, we tested the explanatory power of two theoretical assumptions on premarital childbearing in sub-Saharan Africa, which assumptions are the cultural inheritance model and the social capital model. The results confirmed the explanatory power of the cultural inheritance model on the one hand and partially confirmed the power of the social capital model on the other hand. These results highlight the need for a multipronged approach to sexual and reproductive health for young people. Efforts against premarital pregnancies among adolescents and young women would be more effective if they were based on participatory approaches, incorporating actions at both community and institutional levels, as suggested by the recent Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents logical framework.

Single motherhood and child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: a life course perspective

Single motherhood in sub-Saharan Africa has received surprisingly little attention, although it is widespread and has critical implications for children's well-being. Using survival analysis techniques, we estimate the probability of becoming a single mother over women's life course and investigate the relationship between single motherhood and child mortality in 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Although a mere 5 % of women in Ethiopia have a premarital birth, one in three women in Liberia will become mothers before first marriage. Compared with children whose parents were married, children born to never-married single mothers were significantly more likely to die before age 5 in six countries (odds ratios range from 1.36 in Nigeria to 2.61 in Zimbabwe). In addition, up to 50 % of women will become single mothers as a consequence of divorce or widowhood. In nine countries, having a formerly married mother was associated with a significantly higher risk of dying (odds ratios range from 1.29 in Zambia to 1.75 in Kenya) relative to having married parents. Children of divorced women typically had the poorest outcomes. These results highlight the vulnerability of children with single mothers and suggest that policies aimed at supporting single mothers could help to further reduce child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa.

An assessment of biological age of males in Poland

BACKGROUND

Studies carried out in Poland have shown that some important indices of growth and maturation in children, of the biological well-being during adulthood and the rates of premature mortality depend strongly upon the individual's position on the social scale.

AIM

The study considers whether adult males of higher educational status differ from their chronological age-matches of lower educational status in biological age.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

The data of 2800 occupationally active men, aged 25-65 from the 1994/1995 Polish Health Surveys were used. Twenty-two different measures were used. Biological age was assessed by the method of Borkan and Norris (Journal of Gerontology, 35, 177-184, 1980).

RESULTS

A comparison of biological age profiles of two groups of males based on their educational status showed that in 13 of the 22 characteristics. better-educated men were biologically younger than their poorer educated peers (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Better education is associated with the slowing down of the process of ageing, probably because it produces a healthier life-style.

Premarital fertility in rural South Africa: a challenge to existing population policy

The age pattern of fertility in a rural area of South Africa under demographic surveillance (Agincourt subdistrict) was investigated over the 1992-97 period. The total fertility rate (TFR) averaged 3.3 births per woman of reproductive age over the period, a major drop from earlier estimates in the same area (6.0 births in 1970-74). Age-specific fertility rates showed an atypical bimodal pattern. They were decomposed into two components of similar magnitude: premarital fertility (among women aged 12-26) and marital fertility (among women aged 15-49). The decomposition revealed the two underlying modes: a mode of premarital fertility (among women aged 18-20) and a mode of marital fertility (among women aged 28-30). Premarital fertility accounted for 21 percent of all births and for 47 percent of births among women aged 12-26. This pattern of high premarital fertility appears to reflect a low incidence of contraceptive use before the first birth, especially among adolescents, a low prevalence of abortion, and a high contraceptive prevalence thereafter. This finding calls for a reorientation of the family planning policy, which until now has targeted married women and women who have been pregnant once, but has failed to address the contraceptive needs of young women before their first pregnancy, especially adolescents.