Public Health Commons^™

Premarital Sex In Vietnam: Is The Current Concern With Adolescent Reproductive Health Warranted?, Barbara Mensch, Wesley H. Clark, Dang Nguyen Anh

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

To the extent that research on Vietnamese adolescents has been conducted, it has been concerned with unprotected and unsanctioned sexual activity and its health consequences, namely abortion and sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV. The question we pose is whether this concern is warranted. Is the population community justified in focusing its attention on early sexual activity and HIV risk? Even if the sexual behavior of young people can be considered problematic, are there perhaps other aspects of young people’s lives that should give us greater pause? The paper reviews the literature on adolescent sexual behavior in Vietnam and analyzes data …

The Effect Of Gender Differences In Primary School Access, Type, And Quality On The Decision To Enroll In Rural Pakistan, Cynthia B. Lloyd, Cem Mete, Zeba Sathar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The paper explores the effect of primary school access, type, and quality on the decision to enroll in rural Pakistan using a 1997 survey especially designed for this purpose. A unique contribution of the paper is the construction of gender-specific dimensions of school accessibility and school quality according to school type (i.e., public vs. private). Within the same village, girls and boys often face starkly different options for schooling in terms of distance, type, and quality. Public primary schools are segregated by sex; private schools, whose numbers have grown rapidly in recent years in response to rising demand and the …

'Bus Fare, Please': The Economics Of Sex And Gifts Among Adolescents In Urban South Africa, Carol E. Kaufman, Stavros E. Stavrou

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Force or coercion are often a part of sexual relationships in South Africa, especially among adolescents. This coercion is also often pinioned by an economic exchange: gifts or favours for sex. Studies have pointed out the negative consequences of the exchanges which are often characterised by large age differences (‘sugar daddies’) or power imbalances. Perhaps more pervasive but largely ignored, gift-giving in same-age relationships also may be associated with sexual leverage, an exchange which somehow entitles one partner physical and sexual rights to the other’s body. The circumstances surrounding gifts and favours may shape young women’s and men’s sexual experiences, …

Social Organization And Reproductive Behavior In Southern Ghana, Dominic K. Agyeman, John B. Casterline

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The objective of this research is to examine the association between social organization and reproductive behavior in one setting in sub-Saharan Africa. The particular focus is on the effects of social organization on the diffusion of innovative reproductive ideas and behaviors. Social diffusion is assumed to be strongly affected by patterns of informal social interaction, and these in turn are assumed to be determined in part by the social organization of local communities (gender relations, employment activity, voluntary organizations). The research draws on data collected in six communities in southern Ghana. The analysis reveals a weaker than expected association between …

Universal Sexuality Education In Mongolia: Educating Today To Protect Tomorrow, Delia Barcelona, Laura Laski, Caitlin Gerdts

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This issue of Quality/Calidad/Qualité demonstrates how Mongolia developed a national plan to a provide a comprehensive sexual and reproductive health curriculum and media for adolescents. Among the lessons learned from the Mongolian experience were the following: 1) questions about unwanted sexual relations and sexual roles were the most pressing among adolescents, especially girls; 2) printed media are efficient and inexpensive; and 3) parental opposition was almost nonexistent in certain settings—often they expressed gratitude for this education.

Are We Not Peasants Too? Land Rights And Women's Claims In India, Bina Agarwal

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This edition of SEEDS explores the critical elements in securing effective and independent land rights for women in South Asia. The author presents a range of cooperative strategies for enabling women to retain and cultivate the land and shows how micro-credit and other programs can be redirected to increase the amount and productivity of land women control. Recognizing that new policies and political will are required to foster and sustain such experiments, the author ends with a summary of how women are organizing to place women’s access to land at the center of national and global agendas.

Grandparent Care In The United States: Comparisons By Race And Ethnicity, Jan Mutchler, Seungah Lee, Lindsey A. Baker

Gerontology Institute Publications

The purpose of this report is to compare information on grandparent caregivers in the United States among members of five different racial and ethnic groups. Many grandparents are responsible for grandchildren who live with them in the same household. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act mandates that statistics be collected on grandparents who serve as caregivers to a grandchild. In response to this requirement, questions were developed for the 2000 Census of Population asking each adult about care for grandchildren living in the same household.2 Data from the 2000 Census 5% Public Use Microdata Sample are used in our calculations. The …

Grandparent Care In The African-American Population, Jan Mutchler, Seungah Lee, Lindsey A. Baker

Gerontology Institute Publications

The purpose of this report is to provide information on African-American grandparent caregivers in the United States. Many grandparents are responsible for grandchildren who live with them in the same household. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act mandates that statistics be collected on grandparents who serve as caregivers to a grandchild. In response to this requirement, questions were developed for the 2000 Census of Population asking each adult about care for grandchildren living in the same household. We use the census information to identify grandparents who are caring for grandchildren in two different types of households: skipped-generation households, in which a …

Working Paper: Elders In Massachusetts Prefer Paid Caregivers, Francis G. Caro

Gerontology Institute Publications

Older Massachusetts residents would rather have paid professionals provide their long-term care than their own children, according to a recent UMass Poll of 461 Massachusetts residents.

Women, Poverty, Access To Health Care, And The Perils Of Symbolic Reform, Mary Anne Bobinski, Phyllis Griffin Epps

Faculty Articles

This article looks at health care through gendered eyes. We sift though available data on access to health care, health status, and health treatments to determine whether men and women experience health care differently in the United States. While we do not doubt that overt gender-based discrimination occasionally occurs in health care, this article focuses on the importance of unintended consequences and unconscious bias. We also explore the impact of symbolism about women's roles on the process of health care reform. The results have important implications for policy makers, advocates, and health care providers.

The United States has a large …

Formation Et Soutien Pour Les Scientifiques Démographiques Des Pays En Développement: Rapport Du Groupe D'Experts—Sommaire Et Recommandations, Jane Menken, Ann K. Blanc, Cynthia B. Lloyd

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Dès sa fondation, le Population Council a reconnu l’importance et la valeur de former des scientifiques démographiques provenant des pays en développement. Depuis 1952, le programme de bourses d’études en sciences sociales du Council fait foi de son engagement dans ce domaine : environ 1 500 bourses ont été attribuées pour des stages de doctorat et post-doctorat en études démographiques. Les scientifiques démographiques sont toujours aussi en demande mais le domaine a considérablement changé depuis l’avènement du Population Council. Compte tenu de ces développements, la Fondation Mellon a financé, en 2000, un projet visant à évaluer les besoins futurs de …

Training And Support Of Developing-Country Population Scientists: A Panel Report—Summary And Recommendations, Jane Menken, Ann K. Blanc, Cynthia B. Lloyd

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

From its earliest days, the Population Council has recognized the importance and value of training population scientists from developing countries. Since 1952, the Council’s social science fellowship program has sustained a commitment to this goal; approximately 1,500 fellowships have been awarded for pre- and postdoctoral training in population studies. While the demand for population scientists remains strong, the field has changed substantially since those early years and a review of the program was needed. The Mellon Foundation funded a project in 2000 to assess future needs for training and support of population scientists from developing countries and assembled an international …

Antigenic Community Between Schistosoma Mansoni And Biomphalaria Glabrata: On The Search Of Candidate Antigens For Vaccines, Nathalie Chacon, S. Losada, B. Noya, B. Alarcon De Noya, O. Noya

Physician Assistant Studies Faculty Publications

We have previously confirmed the presence of common antigens between Schistosoma mansoni and its vector, Biomphalaria glabrata. Cross-reactive antigens may be important as possible candidates for vaccine and diagnosis of schistosomiasis. Sera from outbred mice immunized with a soluble Biomphalaria glabrata antigen (SBgA) of non-infected B. glabrata snails recognized molecules of SBgA itself and S. mansoni AWA by Western blot. Recognition of several molecules of the SBgA were inhibited by pre-incubation with AWA (16, 30, 36, 60 and 155 kDa). The only specific molecule of AWA, inhibited by SBgA, was a 120 kDa protein. In order to determine which epitopes …

Mercury Exposure And Malaria Prevalence Among Gold Miners In Pará, Brazil, Ellen K. Silbergeld, Denis Nash, Circey Trevant, G. Thomas Strickland, Jose Maria De Souza, Rui S.U. Da Silva

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Midline Survey Results: Integrating Adolescent Livelihood Activities Within A Reproductive Health Program For Urban Slum Dwellers In India, Mary Philip Sebastian, Dale Huntington, Barbara Mensch, Wesley H. Clark, Shahina Begum, Bela Patel Uttekar, Sohini Roychowdhury

Reproductive Health

The Population Council in collaboration with CARE India has been conducting an operations research (OR) study to investigate the impact of adding a livelihoods component to the Action for Slum Dwellers' Reproductive Health, Allahabad (ASRHA) Project in Uttar Pradesh run by CARE India. The ASRHA Project selected peer educators from the slums and trained them in providing reproductive health (RH) information, communication skills, and group formation techniques. After the peer educators completed training, they conducted group sessions about livelihoods and savings. RH sessions were held alongside vocational counseling sessions. Population Council staff provided vocational training courses, both in the slums …

Kenya: Community Sensitization Must Precede Alternative Coming-Of-Age Rite, Frontiers In Reproductive Health

Reproductive Health

Female genital cutting (FGC) is practiced as a rite of passage in over half of Kenya’s districts. Kenyan nongovernmental agency Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (MYWO) has long conducted community sensitization focused on discouraging this practice. In 1996, MYWO began implementing the “alternative rite” (AR) intervention in sensitized communities. Girls participating in AR receive family life education in seclusion, followed by a public graduation ceremony recognizing them as adults. They are not cut as part of the ceremony. In 2000, the Population Council carried out an assessment of the AR program that sought to identify the impact of MYWO’s activities on knowledge …

How Long Do We Live?, John Bongaarts, Griffith Feeney

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Period life expectancy is calculated from age-specific death rates using life table methods that are among the oldest and most fundamental tools of demography. These methods are rarely questioned, much less criticized. Yet changing age patterns of adult mortality in contemporary countries with high life expectancy provide a basis for questioning the conventional use of age-specific death rates and life tables. This paper argues that when the mean age at death is rising, period life expectancy at birth as conventionally calculated overestimates life expectancy. Estimates of this upward bias, ranging from 1.6 years for the United States and Sweden to …

The End Of The Fertility Transition In The Developing World, John Bongaarts

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Fertility declines are now underway in many developing countries, and the focus of the debate about future fertility trends is shifting from the early to the later phases of the transition. This study examines patterns and determinants of fertility in the developing world using UN estimates of the total fertility rates for 143 developing countries from 1950 to 2000. The main objective is to identify regularities in the past record that may provide clues to future trends. Three key findings emerge from this analysis. First, the pace of fertility decline decelerates as countries reach the later stages of the transition. …

Demographic Factors In East Asian Regional Integration, Geoffrey Mcnicoll

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Remapping Asia project, to which this paper is a contribution, investigates broad spatial changes in the ways that East Asia’s political and social life are organized and economies operate. Such changes are attributable to planned action of governments, firms, and other organized groups and to the unorganized but in some measure predictable behavior of myriad families and individuals. The project’s particular interest is in processes of regionalization-both through the deliberate construction of political institutions and through the largely unplanned emergence of regional affiliations and identities. Demographic factors play a potentially significant part both in promoting and in impeding regional …

Childcare, Mothers' Work, And Earnings: Findings From The Urban Slums Of Guatemala City, Kelly Hallman, Agnes R. Quisumbing, Marie T. Ruel, Benedicte De La Briere

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This study investigates the effects of childcare on work and earnings of mothers in the slums of Guatemala City. Recognizing that mother’s work behavior may depend on the availability of childcare, the modeling approach allows participation in the labor force and use of formal daycare to be jointly determined. We also investigate whether a mother’s “status” within her household (as measured by the value of the assets she brought to her marriage) influences her entry into the labor force. Finally, we explore the impact of childcare prices on a mother’s earnings, conditional on her decision to work. The study uses …

Childcare, Mothers' Work, And Earnings: Findings From The Urban Slums Of Guatemala City [Arabic], Kelly Hallman, Agnes R. Quisumbing, Marie T. Ruel, Benedicte De La Briere

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This study investigates the effects of childcare on work and earnings of mothers in the slums of Guatemala City. Recognizing that mother’s work behavior may depend on the availability of childcare, the modeling approach allows participation in the labor force and use of formal daycare to be jointly determined. We also investigate whether a mother’s “status” within her household (as measured by the value of the assets she brought to her marriage) influences her entry into the labor force. Finally, we explore the impact of childcare prices on a mother’s earnings, conditional on her decision to work. The study uses …

What About Us? Bringing Infertility Into Reproductive Health Care, Okonofua Friday, Bishakha Datta

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Infertility is a major reproductive health problem throughout much of the world. Despite the prevalence and seriousness of infertility, the population and reproductive health field has largely neglected this problem. National policies and international donor organizations have been one-sided in their focus on programs designed to prevent unwanted pregnancies. This issue of Quality/Calidad/Qualité, with clinic-based narratives and case reports from India and Nigeria, illustrates what is involved in trying to address the problem of infertility in developing countries. A possible framework for incorporating limited infertility care into a family planning or reproductive health program includes providing education and counseling, preliminary …

Cancer Dose-Response Modeling Of Low Dose Radiation Exposure, Gizelle Susette Baker

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Many late effects from exposure to ionizing radiation, including cancers, have been described in the literature. The identification and quantification of radiation-induced health effects is an important and complex issue. Recommendations for radiation safety and protection from the International Commission on Radiological Protection are made using a linear no threshold risk model on epidemiological data. A major obstacle in this process is the limited availability of data to directly measure the health effects of radiation on human populations. One way to circumvent this problem IS to use experimental data from laboratory animals and extrapolate across species to man. The cancer …

Strategic Assessment Of Reproductive Health In The Dominican Republic, Suellen Miller, Argelia Tejada, Patricio Murgueytio

Reproductive Health

This report documents the findings of a strategic assessment of reproductive health in the Dominican Republic (DR), carried out by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (SESPAS) and the Dominican Social Security Institute with support from the Population Council’s Expanding Contraceptive Choice (ECC) program and its Latin American and Caribbean regional offices, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The USAID/DR has been working closely with SESPAS to understand the major reproductive health problems in the DR. To better assist SESPAS and to plan the country’s Reproductive Health Strategy for 2002–2007, USAID asked the Population Council’s ECC …

Training Service Providers On Emergency Contraception: Lessons Learned From An Or Study, M.E. Khan, Sharif M.I. Hossain

Reproductive Health

The Bangladesh Directorate of Family Planning in collaboration with the Population Council, Pathfinder International, and John Snow, Inc. is conducting an operations research project to test the feasibility of introducing emergency contraceptive pills (ECP) in the national family planning (FP) program and to answer operational questions on implementing the use of ECP efficiently. In Bangladesh, 1.2 million births are unplanned and the number of menstrual regulation/abortions is increasing. ECP could be a good reproductive health intervention for women since it gives them a chance to avoid unwanted pregnancy. ECP does not induce abortion. In fact, it helps in reducing the …

Best Practices In Cbd Programs In Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons Learned From Research And Evaluation, Frontiers In Reproductive Health, Family Health International, Advance Africa

Reproductive Health

Community-based distribution (CBD) is the use of nonprofessional local distributors or agents to provide family planning (FP) methods—typically condoms, pills, and spermicides—and referral for other services. FP programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have implemented CBD programs for the past 30 years. There is a large body of evidence on the effectiveness, cost, and sustainability of CBD models. Most evidence supports using CBD where appropriate conditions exist. However, major changes have taken place in the context in which programs operate, including the onset of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, enhanced access to FP services, and increased demand for related reproductive health …

Baseline Survey Results: Integrating Adolescent Livelihood Activities Within A Reproductive Health Program For Urban Slum Dwellers In India, Mary Philip Sebastian, Dale Huntington, Wesley H. Clark, Barbara Mensch, Bela Patel Uttekar

Reproductive Health

The Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health Program and Policy Research Division, in collaboration with CARE India, is conducting an operations research study of an intervention designed to improve the lives and prospects of young women in several urban slum areas of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. The project aims to take a preexisting reproductive health program for adolescents and test the feasibility and impact of adding four additional components to it: 1) counseling about savings formation and livelihoods, 2) training in vocational skills, 3) assistance in opening savings accounts, and 4) follow-up support. CARE India is managing the larger adolescent reproductive …

Men In Maternity Study: Men Matter, Anjana Das, Leila Caleb-Varkey, Anurag Mishra, Emma Ottolenghi, Dale Huntington

Reproductive Health

The Population Council and the Employees’ State Insurance Company are collaborating in a Men in Maternity (MiM) study in India to test a model of antenatal and postnatal services designed to help thousands of couples, especially men, redefine their roles in reproductive health and improve birth outcomes and maternal health. This is part of a global study that will assess the impact of male partnership in improving pregnancy outcomes and reproductive health, primarily by reducing the prevalence of STIs and increasing postpartum family planning use. Studies suggest that the lack of men’s participation in reproductive health actually undermines women’s health. …

Men In Maternity Study: Results From The Pre-Intervention Survey Of Pregnant Women And Their Husbands At The Three Interventions, And Of Only Women At Three Control Employees' State Insurance Corporation Dispensaries In Delhi, India: Preliminary Findings, Anurag Mishra, Leila Caleb-Varkey, Emma Ottolenghi, Anjana Das, Dale Huntington, Susan E. Adamchak

Reproductive Health

The Frontiers in Reproductive Health program, a USAID-funded project of the Population Council, is conducting an operations research (OR) study that investigates the effects of male participation in a new model of maternity care that is gender sensitive and provided at the primary-care level. The immediate objectives are to increase the use of family planning methods in the postpartum period and to promote STI primary preventive practices in men and women. The three-year study called Men in Maternity (MiM) is being conducted in South Africa and India. In India, the project is collaborating with the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). …

Men In Maternity Study: A Summary Of The Findings From Pre-Intervention Interviews With Women And Their Husbands Attending Antenatal Clinics At Esic Facilities In Delhi, Anurag Mishra, Leila Caleb-Varkey, Anjana Das, Emma Ottolenghi, Dale Huntington, Susan E. Adamchak, Shahina Begum

Reproductive Health

The Frontiers in Reproductive Health program, a USAID-funded project of the Population Council is conducting an operations research (OR) study that investigates the effects of male participation in a new model of maternity care that is gender sensitive and provided at the primary-care level. The immediate objectives are to increase the use of family planning methods in the postpartum period and to promote STI primary preventive practices in men and women. The three-year study called Men in Maternity (MiM) is being conducted in South Africa and India. In India, the project is collaborating with the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). …