Family roles and female mortality differentials across cultures: an inquiry of cultural adaptation in industrialization

The relationship between family support systems and female mortality in Chinese and American cultures is studied using 1980 official data from Taiwan and the United States. The differences in female mortality by marital status support the hypotheses that Chinese families provide greater support for older than younger females, and that the emphasis on filial piety in Chinese society provides more support for the elderly by Chinese than American children.     

An analytical paradigm for the analysis of national inmigration patterns

This study proposes and demonstrates an analytic paradigm based upon a substantive categorization of a set of inmigration correlates. It exemplifies the notion of categorizing, analyzing according to the categorization, and subsequently discussing the phenomenon in more depth. The paradigm has 2 steps: 1) the variables are categorized according to the cells resulting from the intersection of a preferably small number of nominal dimensions and 2) the data are analyzed, directly anchored in the prior categorization. The data used is Israel's 1983 census macro-data gathered from the Central Bureau of Statistics for the Israeli towns with populations of at least 5000. The authors defined 6 variables as push variables and 4 as pull variables. Results of the regression employing push variables show that 4 variables accounting for 72% of inmigration were found to significantly predict inmigration: 1) unemployment, 2) percentage of Asians-Africans, 3) town size, and 4) religiosity. Within the pull classification, the regression analysis reveals that 2 of the 4 variables explain 31% of the inmigration variance: 1) educational level (26%) and 2) income (5%). The 1st regression analysis on the 2nd dimension shows that the percentage of Asian-African origin and town population size account for 32% of the immigration variance. In the 2nd regression analysis, unemployment explains 48% of the inmigration variance and educational level explains 8%. In the 3rd regression, only home crowding explains a significant amount of the immigration variance (19%). Results of a multiple regression analysis show that unemployment level, percentage of Asian-Africans, population size, and level of religiosity account for 72% of the inmigration variance. Thus, the characteristics of a town inmigrating (push variables) are demographic, economic, and social. However, the attractive features of a town are only economic. Among all economic factors, unemployment is primary. In addition, not only are both percentage of Asians-Africans and population size significantly deflective of inmigration, but each also plays a separate and independent role.     

The accuracy of population censuses in the United States

Methods that have been used or suggested to improve the accuracy of the U.S. census are reviewed. The author notes that self-completed questionnaires yield better results than those completed by census enumerators. The use of sample surveys carried out as part of the census process is described.     

The effect of a nutrition education programme on pregnant women attending Khartoum model clinic

A comparative study conducted in the Sudan illustrated both the potential of a nutrition education program for pregnant women and the many obstacles to creating more optimal maternal nutrition. Included in the study were 1200 women 18-34 years of age attending the Khartoum Province Model Clinic for a minimum of 5 prenatal visits. 83.3% were Muslims and 48.2% were illiterate. The 60 women who comprised the experimental group were exposed to individual nutrition counseling and home visits. Overall, 70% of subjects were anemic, 27% had malaria, and 18% were hookworm. The average weight gain during pregnancy was 4.5 kgs; 25.0% of controls and 20.0% of those in the experimental group gained 3.5-4.0 kgs, 18.3% of controls and 33.3% of experimental subjects gained 4.5-5.0 kgs, and 23.3% of controls and 30.0% of those in the experimental groups gained 5.5 kgs or more. 53.0% of controls and 61.7% of women exposed to nutrition education breastfed for at least 6 months, and 70% of women in the former group and 95% of those in the latter had enrolled their infants in an immunization program. A baseline nutrition questionnaire revealed widespread misinformation, especially a belief that pregnant women should reduce their food intake from 3 to 1-2 meals per day to prevent the fetus from growing too large and making labor difficult. Foods such as fermented sorghum products, fresh fish, and water melon were regarded as abortifacients and avoided, while hot pepper, sour milk, and cola sodas were considered nutritious. Consumption was self-reported to be poor for milk products by 25% of mothers, for meat by 16%, and for fruits and vegetables by 40% Although the educational intervention increased women's knowledge of basic nutrition, it had only a minimal effect on actual practice. This finding is assumed to reflect the widespread belief that men and their guests should be given preference in food allocation, poverty, and avoidance, on the basis of tradition, of many healthy foods. Since 72% of women reported ownership of a television, use if this medium is recommended for nutrition education.     

Clinical program renovation management

The day-to-day management of medical practice is so heavily influenced by tactical imperatives that few physicians have the time to think strategically. Traditionally, the difference between tactics and strategy is not a major concern of most physician executives. The realm of tactics is the short run, when managers must make do with the fixed resources at hand. Strategy addresses the long run, when all resources and markets are variable. A tactical focus is understandable, maybe even acceptable, in industries where nothing challenges traditional approaches to production of an established product or service. However, medical care in the 1990s is changing so fast that a physician executive must devote an incredible amount of time and effort just to stay confused about what is going on.     

Age patterns of marital fertility: revising the Coale-Trussell method

"This article revises the Coale-Trussell method for analyzing data from the World Fertility Survey by proposing and testing alternative log-linear and log-multiplicative models. The models, in one form or another, represent the structural constraint underlying the Coale-Trussell method on the variation in the age pattern of human fertility. With a Poisson distribution assumption for the number of births, several parameters of the models are simultaneously estimated via maximum likelihood. It is shown that the new approach can be adopted whenever fertility limitation is compared across multiple populations or subpopulations."     

The utilitarian criterion,finite sensibility,and the weak majority preference principle

This study is a further analysis of the approach taken by Yew-Kwang Ng to derive the utilitarian criterion. Specific for the model is that individual preferences are finitely sensible. In this framweork an analysis of the consequences on social preferences when different kinds of value premises are imposed is made. It is found that the utilitarian criterion is the unique consequence only for very special choices of the value premise. In addition, uniqueness requires the underlying preferences be cardinal. It is also found that finite sensibility induces approximate cardinalization of preferences.I am grateful to Y.-K. Ng, two anonymous referees and an editor of this journal for helpful and constructive comments on earlier versions of this paper. The research was financially supported by the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences     

Individual behavior under risk and under uncertainty: An experimental study

These experiments are concerned with individual behavior under risk and under uncertainty. By exploiting the isolation effect the experiments were able to offer to 134 subjects the possibility of actually gaining or losing an important sum of money.The experimental data show that under risk as well as under complete ignorance the subjects' attitudes towards prospects of gains and towards prospects of losses are totally unrelated.The data also show that when facing prospects of gains, the subjects generally take the exact probabilities of the events into account, whereas, when facing prospects of losses many of then have only recourse to coarser categories of plausibility, or even no longer use their information at all.     

Maternity and child health care in urban China

In China the effort to develop maternal and child health (MCH) care has been ongoing. Initially, attention was directed primarily to promulgating a modern method of delivery in an effort neonatal tetanus and puerperal fever. The next stage was the systematic management of MCH care. Pregnant women and puerperants were given a series of checkups and guidance from conception until the 42nd day after delivery. The purpose was to prevent and treat complications. In some cities, perinatal care has developed to the point of health care management of the health of both mother and child. This extensive health care system includes preconception and pregnancy care, puerperant care, and neonatal care. Premarital checks have become the rule in the urban areas. MCH care organizations at the grassroots level and community health workers take responsibility for advising newly married couples about health care. In addition, some medical colleges and their affiliated hospitals provide consultation services for these couples. The Shanghai Railway Medical College uses a computer to make projections on multigenic genetic diseases. It provides information on incidence risk of the next generation to help couples make their childbearing decisions. The majority of pregnant women get their 1st prenatal check prior to the 12th week of pregnancy, followed by 9 re-examinations to screen out high risk factors. Difficult labor, infections, obstetric trauma, postpartum hemorrhage, and fetal distress are prevented at childbirth. Newborns are scored with Apgar comments; those with low marks are specially protected. In some cities, an investigation system has been established to deal with perinatal deaths. Perinatal care is managed at 3 levels: community MCH centers and MCH departments of hospitals, clinics, and industrial enterprises form the 1st level of care; MCH centers of city districts and hospitals at the district level make up the 2nd level of care; and MCH institutes or hospitals at provincial or city levels, hospitals attached to medical colleges, and hospitals under government ministries form the 3rd level of care.