[An analysis of Korean women's reproductivity]

An analysis of reproductivity is mainly concerned with the measurement of net force of fertility expressed in terms of a generation rather than in a given year. The present study examined current trends of Korean Women's reproductivity interpreting general reproduction and net reproduction rates, intrinsic rate of natural increase and mean length of gestation. The data used for this analysis were drawn from the national fertility surveys from 1970 through 1990 conducted by the Korea Institute for Population and Health. The figures of the present study revealed that the reproduction rates of Korea during the last 20 years decreased from 2.22 in 1970 to 0.71 in 1990 and net reproduction rates also dropped from 1.9 to 0.69 during the same period of time. Furthermore, from this study, it is noticed that the replacement level of fertility had been reached since the early 1980s. The intrinsic rate of natural increase as measure of population growth under existing conditions of fertility and mortality and free of the influence of the current age distribution, is computed. The level of rate was not much changed and was 0.3 in 1970 compared with 0.25 in 1990, which is still higher than other developed countries. The mean age of mother at the birth of their daughters defined as the length of generation has been slightly changed from 23.9 in 1971 to 25.8 in 1990.

A decade of change in contraceptive behaviour in Latin America: a multivariate decomposition analysis

This study relies heavily on World Fertility Survey and Demographic and Health Surveys data to examine recent trends and determinants of contraceptive use in five Latin American countries: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru. These countries experienced a substantial increase in contraceptive prevalence in the inter-survey period. Within countries, however, the increase was not equally shared by all social and demographic groups. The study found that relatively disadvantaged groups experienced greater gains in contraceptive use. Despite the prevailing tendency towards convergence, wide differentials in contraceptive behavior among social sectors still persist. A decomposition analysis based on logistic regression revealed that certain shifts in the population composition--i.e., increased proportion of urban and better educated women and a growing proportion of mothers who want to discontinue child-bearing--contributed substantially to the aggregate increase in contraceptive prevalence in most countries. Structural changes, understood as changes in the relations between the explanatory variables and the likelihood of using contraception, were also found to play a significant role in contraceptive use trends, particularly in Colombia.

[Netherlands Fertility Survey, September 1977]

"By means of a sample survey information has been gathered on the number of live-born children, the number of additionally expected children and the exposure status of married women born in the period 1928-1961, with the Dutch nationality and living in the Netherlands. Approximately 7,000 women have been asked to participate. About those women who did/could not participate a few demographic data were gathered from the municipal population registers. This article gives some important results of the survey but does not analyse those results profoundly."

A study of the mortality rate and life expectancy of the Chinese population over the last forty years

"In order to make up for the incompleteness of data in the last 40 years, this paper will try to make a preliminary study of the age-specific mortality rate and average life expectancy and its changing trends [for] the Chinese population over the last 40 years, based on the relevant data on mortality from sample surveys on fertility and birth control among Chinese women."

Homogeneity in Turkish Fertility Survey: implications for cluster size derived from homogeneity in basic survey variables

"This study examines several error statistics derived from the computed variance in basic survey variables of the Turkish Fertility Survey (1978). These are standard error, design factor, design effect and rate of homogeneity. [The] results are presented for the total sample as well as for subclasses. [It is demonstrated that] previous knowledge about the homogeneity and cluster size of main survey variables [will help] to design better surveys in the future. This process can be further extended for other survey variables by imputation." (summary in TUR)

[How consistent are personal data? Analysis of statements on the planning status of pregnancies]

The consistency of responses on the planning status of births is analyzed using data from a longitudinal fertility survey being carried out by the Demographic Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Interviews were conducted in 1978 and 1981 with a sample of two marriage cohorts; in both sets of interviews a question was asked concerning the reaction to a pregnancy at the time the woman heard about it. "After linking the data for the pregnancies leading to first or second births, a consistency index suggested by Ryder and Westoff...was applied which distinguishes between random and nonrandom consistency. For the first births a proportion of 54.4% identical answers yields a consistency index of 38.0...; for second births a proportion of 53.7% identical answers results in [a] consistency index of 30.1...." Differential consistency is also analyzed according to selected socioeconomic and demographic variables as well as a variable measuring the correspondence of husband's and wife's desired family sizes in the opinion of the husband. (summary in ENG)

Contraceptive practices and trends in France

CONTEXT

Contraceptive use has been legal in France for the past 30 years, and patterns of use changed substantially from the 1960s to the 1980s. Given the rapidity with which use patterns change and the possible impact of rising concern about infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, it is important to determine trends of contraceptive practice into the 1990s.

METHODS

A total of 5,900 French households were selected in 1994 for inclusion in the Fertility and Family Survey. Respondents were questioned about their contraceptive use patterns and family formation status. The results were compared with those of comparable surveys conducted in 1978 and 1988.

RESULTS

Two-thirds of French women used some form of reversible contraceptive method in 1994. Oral contraceptive use has grown steadily in France: About 40% of women aged 20-44 reported using the pill alone or combined with another method in 1994, compared with 34% in 1988 and 28% in 1978. Condom use has also been on the rise: Nearly 8% of women were using condoms alone or combined with another method in 1994, up from 5% in 1988 and 6% in 1978. IUD use has declined from 19% in 1988 to 16% in 1994, and both male and female sterilizations remain rare.

CONCLUSIONS

Contraceptive behavior in France appears unique among developed countries, with fairly high levels of oral contraceptive use--even among older women--relatively high levels of IUD use and little reliance on either male or female sterilization. As with other countries, however, condom use has climbed in recent years, and is especially common at first intercourse.

Education as policy: the impact of education on marriage, contraception, and fertility in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia

Using data from the World Fertility and Demographic and Health Surveys of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, we model the effects of education on three demographic outcomes: the timing of first sexual union, contraceptive use, and fertility. These effects are examined over time and across geographic areas using a multivariate framework. We find substantial improvements in female educational attainment over the last fifty years and a strong relationship between education and the demographic outcomes. Each successive increment in education is associated with declines in the marriage rate, increased contraceptive use, and lower fertility. Education accounts for some of the changes over time in the demographic outcomes, but the pattern varies by outcome, time period, and geographic area. In support of the social diffusion hypothesis, our results indicate that educational differences in reproductive behavior are reduced as the level of development increases and societies pass through their demographic transition.

Reproductive preferences and fertility trends in post-transition Thailand

Two large national surveys in 1988 and 1933 provide new evidence on trends in family-size preferences in Thailand at a time when the Thai fertility transition is reaching its conclusion. Although the average preferred number of children has continued to decline, a resistant lower bound of two children is found for the vast majority of respondents, stemming, apparently, from a pervasive, although not inflexible, desire to have one child of each sex. Moreover, new evidence from birth-registration data indicates that the decline in the total fertility rate appears to have leveled off at about replacement level. These findings challenge the view that fertility in Thailand will continue to fall well below replacement level, and contradict recently expressed alarmist predictions of population decline in the foreseeable future.

The exclusion of never-married women from Chinese fertility surveys

Never-married women have been regularly excluded in official national surveys of fertility in China, even in light of evidence of increasing premarital sexual activity. Likewise, never-married women in the United States were consistently excluded from national fertility surveys prior to 1982 because of the perceived sensitivity of questions about contraceptive use and sexual activities. Data on sexual and fertility behavior from all women of reproductive age, regardless of marital status, can provide direct measures of sexual activity and unintended pregnancies, as well as facilitate modeling of social networks underlying the sexual transmission of diseases. China's need for such information, however sensitive, will become more difficult to ignore given increasing pressures to attend to the health needs of their never-married but sexually active population.

The effect of changes in population characteristics on breastfeeding trends in fifteen developing countries

BACKGROUND

Extended breastfeeding is known to benefit the health of children in developing countries and despite widespread expectations of a decline in breastfeeding in these countries, it has been demonstrated that the incidence and duration of breastfeeding are in fact increasing many countries.

METHODS

In this paper, trends in breastfeeding duration are examined in 15 developing countries, using data from two comparable surveys for each country, the World Fertility Survey (conducted in the late 1970s) and the Demographic and Health Survey (conducted in the late 1980s). Multivariate regression models are used to examine differentials in breastfeeding behaviour across population subgroups in these countries for each time period, and these differentials are used to determine the extent to which the observed trends are due to changes in population characteristics and to what extent behaviour has changed within population subgroups.

RESULTS

Results show that changes in the characteristics of the population have almost universally pushed breastfeeding durations in the downward direction. On the other hand, trends within population subgroups have been positive in all but two of the 15 countries examined.

CONCLUSIONS

Changes in population characteristics can be expected to continue for most developing countries, exerting a downward pressure on breastfeeding. Policies that promote breastfeeding are needed to counter these changes, especially in the most vulnerable population subgroups.

Regional variation in infant survival in China

From retrospective survey reports 1985-87, the study examined the determinants of neonatal and post-neonatal survival in three provinces in China. Conditional logistic regression models were employed to estimate the effects of macro- and micro-level factors (such as socioeconomic conditions, familial relationships, as well as biosocial determinants) on the survivorship of neonatal and post-neonatal infants in China. The study yielded two findings: (1) Social changes in Chinese society had a strong positive effect on neonatal and post-neonatal survivorship; and (2) the magnitude of such social changes differed across regions which, in turn, led to the differential effects on neonatal and post-neonatal survivorship across provinces in China.

Adolescent contraceptive use and its determinants in Bangladesh: evidence from Bangladesh Fertility Survey 1989

This study is concerned with contraceptive use among the currently married adolescents in Bangladesh utilizing the 1989 Bangladesh Fertility Survey (BFS) data. The study analyzes the factors affecting the current use of contraception among the adolescents through bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. The results indicate that although adolescents have almost universal knowledge about contraceptive methods, only 15 percent are currently using any method of contraception. The corresponding figures for the adults and for the nation as a whole are 34.4 percent and 31.4 percent, respectively. Among the individual methods currently used by the adolescents, the pill appears as the most popular method, followed by safe period. A substantial proportion of the adolescents were found to rely on the traditional methods of contraception. Among the socio-economic variables (as revealed by the logistic regression analysis), respondents' education, participation in the family planning decision, visit by family planning workers, region of residence, husband's occupation and possession of electricity in the household appear as the most significant factors determining the current use of contraception among the adolescents.