New information from the State Committee on Statistics of the USSR

Selected data concerning the USSR are presented. They concern vital statistics by republic for 1989 for rural and urban areas, birth order, life expectancy by sex, and population change and vital statistics for cities with a population over one million.     

Population and towns in Senegal: demo-geographic growth

Using data from the 1976 and 1988 censuses, the author notes that the population of Senegal has grown by 37.6 percent over the period and that this growth is concentrated in urban areas. One feature of this trend has been the growing primacy of the capital Dakar and a decline in the relative importance of smaller towns. The need to discourage rural-urban migration by promoting socioeconomic development in rural areas is stressed. (SUMMARY IN ENG)     

Housestaff coverage in a nonteaching community hospital

In August 1992, a project team of senior medical and administrative personnel was formed (Housestaff Coverage Project Team) at the Park Ridge Health System, Rochester, N.Y.. The team was given a mandate to address housestaff coverage, primarily from an economic standpoint. Through total quality management (TQM), the project team sought to develop a house coverage plan that was sustainable, efficient, and effective. A plan was developed that includes three layers of service. A minimum "standard hospital coverage" would be available to all physicians and their patients and cover the basic needs of admission, crisis intervention, and issues of length of stay. A complete level of service would be available under the title of "case management" and would consist of total patient management, under the direction of the attending physician, from admission through discharge. The third level of service available to both "standard" and "case managed" patients would be a "consultative service." The latter would function as a traditional in-house medical service and would bill for its services. Park Ridge Hospital believes it has developed a system of housestaff coverage that is sustainable, efficient, and effective. An evaluation mechanism, primarily addressed at length of stay, will tell if we are correct in this assumption.     

Employment-based health benefits: analysis of the April 1993 Current Population Survey

The April 1993 CPS differs from the March 1993 CPS in a number of respects. The April 1993 CPS supplement surveys only workers, whereas the March CPS examines the noncash benefits received by all Americans. The April CPS asks workers about health coverage in the week in which the questions were fielded, whereas the March CPS asks about coverage in the preceding year. In April 1993, there were 112.5 million civilian American workers between the ages of 18 and 64 with jobs. Eighty-two million (73 percent) of them worked for an employer that sponsored a health insurance plan, and 65 million (58 percent of all workers) participated in their employer's health plan. About one-third of workers at firms with fewer than 10 employees had employers who offer health benefits; about one-quarter of all of the workers in these firms participated in their employer's plan. Conversely, 94 percent of workers at firms with more than 1,000 employees had an employer who sponsored health benefits, and over 77 percent of these workers participated in their employer's plan. There are 16.5 million American workers whose employers sponsored health benefits but who did not participate in these benefits. Over one-half of these workers (8.5 million) chose not to be covered. Another 36 percent of these workers (5.9 million) did not participate because they were ineligible or denied coverage. Over 66 percent of the ineligible workers did not participate because they were part-time, contract, or temporary workers. Another 26 percent had not yet completed a probationary period. Among the reasons that those who chose not to participate in their employer's coverage, the vast majority (75 percent) stated they were covered by another health care plan. Twenty-nine percent stated that they chose not to purchase coverage because it was too costly or that they did not need or want the coverage. In 1993, there were 16.7 million workers with no health insurance coverage. The vast majority of these workers (95 percent) were employed by private employers. Sixty-six percent of the workers with no health insurance coverage were self-employed or worked for firms with fewer than 100 employees.     

The impact of migration on gender roles: findings of field research in Turkey

Findings are based on a sample of four types of Turkish women affected by migration: 1) pioneer women who emigrated on their own (33 persons); 2) followers with wage work experience, who joined or left with husbands (44 persons); 3) followers without wage work experience (39 persons); and 4) women left behind when husbands migrated (45 persons). These women are compared to a non-migrant control group (54 persons). Sample surveys were conducted in three sites, which varied in levels of industrial development, economic diversification, and urbanization (Ankara, Kisehir, and eight rural villages in the province of Kisehir). The sample includes returnees registered with the Social Insurance Institute and persons located by the chain inquiry method. Prior research supports the importance of including typologies based on family types, marriage types, levels of education, and experience with wage work. This study confirms that pioneer women were more likely to have romantic marriages, to have nuclear families, to have higher educational levels, and to have prior wage work. Analysis of the 116 women with migration experience shows that 75% migrated during 1968-74. 22% migrated after 1980. 51% were returnees during 1983-85, and many received retirement benefits. Almost 65% spent 10 or more years abroad. 56% were aged under 24 years. 85% were married at the time of emigration. 61% viewed their migration experiences as improving their maturity and ability to handle affairs compared to nonmigrant women. 88% became housewives after returning. 27% of return migrants and 82% of nonmigrants had never had their own bank accounts. 69% of return migrants and only 22% of nonmigrants reported movement outside the home without permission. 63% of migrants and 39% of nonmigrants would cast political votes independently of their husbands. Migrating women exercised more independent behavior but retained traditional responsibility for housework. The greatest differences were between women with wage work and women without or with migrating husbands. Followers without wage work were the most disadvantaged. Migration is viewed as a significant factor in determining gender roles among Turkish women.     

LET''''S MAKE ENGLISH MORE EXCITING

"Teacher, what are we going to do next class?" This is an exciting question which I often hear from my students. As an English conversation teacher, I can make the learning of English either a dull and boring duty, or an exciting adventure. It is very important that I make my students hate missing my class, and keep them guessing just what will happen the next time! Let us consider some important ways that any teacher can help his other students want to do their     

Recent migrations from Morocco to Spain

"This study addressed the problem of the Moroccan immigration into Spain within the context of South-North movements, focusing on analyzing provisional data from the last immigrant regularization in the country completed during the end months of 1991."     

Sustainability of family planning and health projects

USAID has assisted the Ghanian Ministry of Health since 1991 to boost family planning services under the Ghana Family Planning and Health Project by providing supplies and information and increasing the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS prevention and control. The sustainability of the health system is endangered by favoring capital expenditures in lieu of continuous expenditures; the lack of linkage between project activities and regular activities; the centralization of resource flow; and too ambitious targeting. Capital outlays provided by USAID featured in the construction of four public health laboratories, but their operation also requires continuous financing amounting to about 10% of the whole investment. The latter is the responsibility of the government, although the details of these recurrent costs were not detailed at the outset and providing these funds for continuous operation may impair the operation of other systems. The resource constraints could be alleviated by an effective cost-recovery system or by the general improvement of the economy. The lack of linkage between project and regular activities is serious at regional and district levels. The centralization of resource flow means that most resources are kept for headquarter level activities, thus other activities suffer and the health sector becomes excessively reliant on donor support. Too ambitious planning stems from pressure on donors and hastily implemented projects result in duplication and waste. Closer consultation with the parties involved would improve the situation. The rivalry of technical and policy groups has contributed to past deficiencies. Double funding for the same activity has also occurred further increasing the dependence on donor funding. By concentration on people and systems sustainability would be enhanced, while cost recovery would help the operation of the laboratories. The Health Education Unit (HEU) recognized the importance of IEC and obtained financing for such activities.     

A problem in household composition

"Distinction made between household-persons and household-markers [the person who identifies the family or household as a unit] is formalized in the notion of nested populations. This leads to an extension of the Leslie model into a formulation of growth for both population and households. The extended model involves the matrix presentation of household composition where ratios of household-persons who are age 0, per household-marker, function as surrogate values for fertility rates. The extended model describes change over time in the distribution of population by age, and in the distribution of households by age of household-marker, or household-head. The model involves the inversion of a nonnegative matrix, and is feasible only if it yields, projected over time, nonnegative entries in vectors representing distribution of population by age, and distribution of household-heads by age. Conditions for the feasibility of the extended model are discussed, and a sufficient condition for feasibility over a single interval is identified." (SUMMARY IN FRE)