Ilocos region: BSPO paramedics: training in Abra pays off

The study entitled "the comprehensive Baragay Medical System in Arba: An Evaluation" analyzed the performance of trained paramedics and found that the effectiveness of barangay service point officers (BSPOs) as outreach workers depeded on: the knowledge and skills they acquired after traning, which helped them meet the medical needs of community residents; their acceptability to the community; and their positive attitude toward their job. The study indicated that adquate training for the job was crucial to the effective performance of outreach workers. The study compared the performance fo BSPO paramedics and BSPO nonparamedics in metting the health care and family planning needs of residents of the communities the served. BSPO paramedics fared much better as outreach workers in the tasks they were trained for -- rendering services in family planning and health care -- than BSPO nonparamedics wo were not given that kind of training. The study was conducted in the towns of Sallapadan, Pilar, and Danglas for BSPO paramedics and in Manabo, Villaviciosa, and La Paz for BSPO nonparamedics. Interviewed were a sample group of married adults in the areas, 15 BSPO paramedics, and 15 BSPO nonparamedics. The BSPO paramedics had undergone training in preventive medicine, environmental sanitation, and treatment of minor illnesses. The were taught advanced first aid techniques, over the cunter dispensing of medicines, and basic laboratory analysis. The nonparamedics were not trained in these functins. The residents preferred to approach BSPO paramedics for both family planning and medical servies, and more community members also derived the "highest degreee of satisfaction" from the paramedics' services. The BSPO paramedics also served more family planning clients and provided community residents more kinds of medical services. These included medical checkup, the distribution and sale of medicines, curing illnesses, and assisting in child delivery. In terms of job satisfaction, 13 out of every 15 BSPO paramedics interviewed indicated that they were "very satisfied" with their jobs, while only 6 of 15 nonparamedics gave the same rating. The survey findings suggest that the Arba Comprehensive Barangay Medical System can be a viable model for outreach workers in remote communities.     

Bangladesh: sterilization program

The National Sterilization Campaign was launched in mid-February 1977 in Bangladesh. The goals were to sterilize 60,000 people in 2 months, to demonstrate the capabilities of the health services, to provide some visible results from the Population Control and Family Planning Division program, and to test the surgical facilities of 150 health centers. 75,000 plus candidates were recruited for sterilization. The campaign mobilized 300 doctors attached to 150 district health centers. During the 1st 2 weeks of operation, 50 centers reported the performance of 4428 vasectomies and 2113 tubectomies. Each acceptor received cash, food, and transportation incentives. The demand for birth control is great, and little basic motivational work was required. Following the campaign, sterilization services are being made available on a regular basis at health centers, but the financial incentives may be discontinued.     

Hidden Death:

While there have been some positive changes in American attitudes toward the sexuality and reproductive life of young women, little attention is paid to preserving aging women's sexuality. The tragic effects of this neglect appear in the case of hysterectomy, which every year deprives hundreds of thousands of women of normal sexual response.     

Female Incest Survivors:

This exploratory study of adult female incest survivors examined their attitudes and practices regarding caregiving for their aging parents. In-depth interviews with 14 women revealed considerable conflict between internalized societal expectations about eldercare and the recovery process from childhood incest. The analysis identified five "caregiving avoidance" strategies the women used to balance the opposing needs of their parents and their own recovery process: Determined Avoidance; Remote Caregiving; Restrained Support; No Touch Caregiving; and Disengaged Caregiving. The data suggest that viewing the family system from a historical perspective allows professionals to better understand daughters' reluctance to provide eldercare.     

Extended Care-Giving:

For the most part, care-giving is a function expected, even demanded, by terminally ill spouses, their families, and friends. This paper includes a brief introduction to issues surrounding care-giving , a fictionalized story of a long term care-giver, and interviews with ten women and two men who served as care-givers. The care-givers read the story and responded to it in terms of their own experiences. Their stories are reported here to illuminate the care-giving role as seen by care-givers themselves.     

Correction to: Vertical and Horizontal Inequality in Ecuador: The Lack of Sustainability

Social Indicators Research - The article Vertical and Horizontal Inequality in Ecuador: The Lack of Sustainability, written Ivan Gachet, Diego F. Grijalva, Paúl A. Ponce and Damián...     

Language matters: an introduction

That language and sexuality are closely connected is one of the enduring themes in human sexuality research. The articles in this special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality explore some of these language-centered insights as they apply to same-sex related desires, identities, and practices and to other dimensions of non-normative sexual experiences. The articles address language use over a range of geographic and social locations. The linguistic practices discussed are diverse, including the language associated with Santería, comments viewers make about gay pornography, homophobic discourse, coming out stories, stories where declarations of sexual identity are tacitly withheld, sexual messages in Black hip hop culture, assessments of urban AIDS ministries, and policies that limit transgender subjects' access to urban space. Taken together, these articles demonstrate that language matters in the everyday experience of sexual sameness and they model some of the approaches that are now being explored in language and sexuality studies.     

Intermarriage: Opportunity and Preference

The two-sex problem in the analysis of nuptiality can be reduced to the problem of separating factors that determine the opportunity to choose a certain category of marriage partner from factors representing preference for the same type of partner. A theory that enables opportunity factors to be separated from preference factors is presented in this paper, in the context of analysing the phenomenon of intermarriage. An index called ‘the marital index of social distance’ is derived and its properties discussed. The index, representing preference factors free of opportunity factors, can be calculated easily from marriage statistics detailing group affiliations of brides and grooms. The theory is applied to data on in-marriage of Australian sub-populations defined by birthplace, for the period 1954–83. It is shown that marital indices of social distance have remained relatively constant over time compared with in-marriage rates which have fluctuated according to representation in the marriage market.     

Demographics: people and markets

The basics of demography are now basic to us business as well. Demographics combine demographic data with socioeconomic and geographic factors to help business and other managers know the market for their goods and services. This pamphlet explains market, product, and site analyses, discusses data sources and resources, and includes case studies involving major corporations. Post-war population trends have had an enormous impact on consumer and labor markets, bringing home to business the importance of taking advantage of demographic shifts. Advances in computerized access to data describing changes and increased consciousness of their economic significance has spurred the application of demographic knowledge by managers and the growth of the demographics information industry. The pamphlet describes the resources and methods of demographics including the creation and use of demographic data products.     

Abused Older Women:

Due to the recent "discovery" of elder abuse and the failure of the battered women's movement to reach out to older persons, the physically abused older woman is not necessarily seen as a battered woman. Elder abuse has been viewed as more akin to child abuse, thus leading to a paternalistic approach to the problem. This article contrasts the prevalence, causal models, and effects of physical abuse amon young and older women. Interventions in the case of spouse and elder abuse are also compared. The author concludes by suggesting ways in which helpers might borrow from the battered women's movement in order to better serve older battered women.     

Retired or Homemaker:

In this study we exolore the role definitions that older women choose for themselves and the sociodemographic factors and activities that differentiate women who choose different labels. Of 864 black and white women from a 1986 national survey, 197 defmed themselves as both retired and homemaker; 363 called themselves homemakers only and 304 retired only. Marital status, having a retired spouse, hours of housework, education, and having been employed after age 51 significantly differentiated the groups. Retired homemakers were similar to homemakers on the first three factors and similar to the retired on the remaining two. The forced classification of these in-between women into only one role may explain contradictory results in past comparisons of retired women and homemakers.     

Nepal: Integrated health services project

The Integrated Health Services Project, part of Nepal's current 5-year development plan, will aim at minimal health services to the maximum number of people. The project plans to provide for basic health needs through home visits by village health workers. The object is to stem high mortality particularly of mothers and infants through home nutrition, immunization, and teaching oral rehydration techniques, and induce a decline in fertility with conventional devices and ad hoc sterilization camps. The health aides will number 1/3000-5000 people who will visit villages with materials and a 12-point health message. 1 implement is an armband to measure the circumference of children's arms to diagnose nutritional status.     

America's children: mixed prospects

The prospects of US children are uneven and uncertain. Today's youngsters are more apt to have fewer siblings, come from a broken home, have a working mother, and pass time as a "latchkey kid." More children are in child care than in the past and there has been a significant move toward center-based care. Increasingly, preschool-age children, particularly from relatively well-off families, are enrolled in prekindergarten educational settings. Declining family size and recent American prosperity have created material well-being for most of today's children. But the development of an underclass has also increased the number of children trapped in poverty. The stagnant wages of the "working poor" and the growing number of mother-only households have exacerbated income inequality among children from different family circumstances. The decline in educational achievement scores, which characterized the 1970s, has, for the moment at least, ended and the average school performance even improved slightly in the 1980s. In addition, more students, especially black students, completed high school in the 1980s. And the physical health of the average American child has improved dramatically since 1960. Most American children lead happy, healthy lives and several trends portend well for the future of most youngsters. But the picture is marred by the problematic future of the children of the underclass and the uncertain psychological impact of America's transformed family life.     

Immigrant closets: tactical-micro-practices-in-the-hyphen

The theoretical and material moves within this essay suggest that culturally hybrid agents use the "closet" as a space to negotiate the intersections of sexuality and ethnicity in everyday life. Discussing some conclusions of my ethnographic research project with the Russian Gay and Lesbian Group of West Hollywood, this essay applies Michel de Certeau's notion of tactics to the daily micro-practices of queer identified immigrants as they move between the demands of overlapping and contradictory cultures. Examining the circumstances in the Russian-American-immigrant-imagined community shared by the informants in this site, I argue that, contrary to a popularized valorization of queer "outness," there is a great deal of power in the oscillation between visibility and invisibility.     

Population policy: Personal notes

Abstract These are the population years: throughout the world, in both developing and developed countries, there has been a growing debate on population policy. In this paper population policy refers to governmental actions that are designed to alter population events, or that do alter them. The concern with policy seems to center in the relationships between four demographic variables (size, rates, distribution, composition) and four 'quality of life' categories as both determinants and consequences (comprehended here as economic, political, ecological/environmental, social). As to policy means, they can be seen as being five in number (information, voluntary programmes, change in social institutions, incentives and disincentives, and coercion) with the potential of affecting the three factors of fertility, mortality, and migration. The relationships and effects of these conceptual cross tabulations are illustrated.     

Mortality modeling: A review

Looking at survival in terms of biological indicators of aging has given rise to various models of mortality, some of which we review here. The most notable models are that of Strehler and Mildvan, which relates the force of mortality to the ability of organisms to compensate for stress, and that of Sacher and Trucco, which describes the role played by homeostatic forces in shaping the age‐specific pattern of mortality. The analysis of longitudinal data in aging studies now incorporates the notions of heterogeneity and frailty, as well as that of changes in the “repair capacity”; of organisms. Furthermore, attention is now being paid to evolutionary theory and to models of senescence. These models and directions for further research are discussed.     

Indonesia: paradise lost

Bali has been facing a rapid increase in population over the past 15 years. The total now is 2.3 million and density is 409/sq km. Recent family planning efforts have produced good results with 56.2% of eligible couples using a contraceptive. This success appears to be due to 1) religion (most are Hindus), 2) Balinese women are receptive to arguments of having fewer children as many work, 3) many (68%) use the IUD so the dropout rate is low, and 4) the traditional community organization system (BANJAR) is used and it has monthly meetings.     

Craigslist Exposed: The Internet-Mediated Hookup

This research examines how people advertise themselves on Craigslist. The authors develop a framework that highlights 13 resources that heterosexual and homosexual men and women offer in Craigslist advertisements. The results reveal that many heterosexual advertisers offer and seek similar resources on Craigslist, whereas gay men primarily use Craigslist to seek and offer sex. About one-fourth of homosexual advertisers are in committed relationships. The authors build on this finding by exploring the extent to which married men use Craigslist for “hookups.” The authors show the extent to which married men solicit responses to 6 different advertisements for sexual encounters that range from safe to high risk.     

Cancer in Poland: general characteristics

The author reviews cancer patterns in Poland, with a focus on the incidence of new cancer cases, age and sex differences, and causes of death. The impact of urban or rural residence, life-style, and population aging is considered.     

Correction to: Iran’s Multi-ethnic Mosaic: A 23-Year Perspective

Social Indicators Research - The article Iran’s Multi-ethnic Mosaic: A 23-Year Perspective, written Mahdi Majbouri and Sanaz Fesharaki, was originally published electronically on the...