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On Comparison of Birth Interval Distributions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

C. M. Suchindran  and
J. W. Lingner
C. M. Suchindran
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
J. W. Lingner
Affiliation:
Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
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Summary

Frequently it is of interest to compare the distributions of birth intervals for two or more population subgroups. Such analysis can serve as a useful adjunct to conventional studies of differential fertility.

This paper discusses several statistical tests which can be used to test differences in the distributions of the length of birth order specific intervals when these distributions are obtained using life table techniques. Since such estimates involve incomplete or arbitrarily censored intervals, conventional statistical tests are not appropriate.

The tests are illustrated through application to data from the 1965 National Fertility Survey. Data on the occurrence and timing of third and fourth births are shown to be significantly different for black and white currently married women. Comparisons among income groups, however, fail to show significant differences.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , January 1977 , pp. 25 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © 1977, Cambridge University Press

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