Data from a 1993 household survey in rural Sierra Leone revealed that, among women aged 12-49 with at least one child younger than 5, about 13% were using a contraceptive method and about 67% wanted more children. These rates differ from those reported for the 1980s and 1970s, when the contraceptive use rate was around 6% and more than 85% of women desired more children, suggesting a trend towards fertility limitation over the years. Logistic regression analysis showed that contraceptive use was positively associated with age, number of living children, age at marriage, education, and economic status, and negatively associated with Islamic and traditional religious affiliations. Government and other health clinics, hospitals, and government paramedical personnel were the major sources of contraceptive supplies. The lower desire for more children might relate to demographic pressure from the recent improved child survival rate compounded by recent economic hardship.

This paper studies the correlates of IUD continuation, particularly in relation to quality of service provided in Karnataka, South India, by using a discrete-time logit model. Provision of follow-up services had a moderate influence on continuation, and medical check-up at insertion influenced the experience of side effects. But these effects were trivial in comparison with the overriding influence of motivational variables and of reported side effects. The IUD is retained for a limited duration in rural India where it is used mainly as a spacing device by lowly motivated young women who discontinue the method at the slightest feeling of discomfort or abnormality. If the IUD were recommended to older women for limiting childbearing by emphasizing its reversibility, it would enhance the method's popularity and improve the levels of contraceptive use among younger women.

This paper examines the seasonality of induced abortion in North Carolina between 1980 and 1993. Distinct seasonal patterns are found, with a peak in February and a valley in September. These patterns correspond to the implicit seasonality of conceptions associated with the seasonality of birth pattern. One notable difference from the general pattern is among unmarried women aged 18 and younger. They have the February peak and an additional peak in August that may be associated with the summer vacation from school.

This study examines whether mortality of two adjacent siblings in families is age-specific and is modified by the MCH–FP programme and fertility and mortality declines in Matlab, Bangladesh, using data for singleton births during 1977–78, 1985–86 and 1989–90 in the treatment (MCH–FP) and comparison areas. Logistic regression was used to estimate the net effects of survival status of elder siblings on mortality of younger siblings in the neonatal, postneonatal and toddler periods, controlling for birth order, previous birth interval, maternal age, education and religion, household possession of valuable items and sex of the child.

Odds of neonatal and postneonatal deaths of younger siblings were found to be higher if the elder sibling had died at the same age than if the sibling had survived infancy. Toddler mortality was lower if the elder sibling had died in infancy. The association between two siblings' mortality risks did not decline over time in either area. The results suggest that a family history of child deaths by age is important to identify when subsequent infants would be at a higher risk of dying.

This paper explores a number of socioeconomic factors thought to explain the wide prevalence of undernutrition among rural Bangladeshi women. The 1992 baseline survey data of the BRAC-ICDDR,B Joint Research Project at Matlab were used. Anthropometry was performed on a random sub-sample of 1462 currently married, non-pregnant women between 15 and 49 years of age. Women's nutritional status was defined in terms of Body Mass Index (BMI=wt in kg/ht in m2). Compared with women from better-off households, the mean weight (41.2 vs 43.0 kg; p<0.0001), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) (22.1 vs 22.7; p<0.0001), and BMI (18.5 vs 19.1; p<0.0001) of poor women were consistently lower. However, no significant difference in mean height was found between the two groups. The results showed that women aged more than 35 years are twice as likely to have a BMI<18.5 compared with younger women. Both years of schooling received and socioeconomic status are found to be important predictors of women's BMI. Women who have received one or more years of formal education are nearly half as likely to suffer chronic energy deficiency (BMI<18.5) than women with no schooling. Again, better-off women are found to be 0.77 times less likely to have chronic energy deficiency than women from poor households. The implications of these findings in improving the nutritional status of rural Bangladeshi women are discussed.

This paper presents information on the opportunity for genetic drift in La Alpujarra, a rural population of the Spanish Mediterranean. This region is characterized by its historical isolation. The analyses were based on a survey of 45% of the population. The Effective Population Size (NE=1986), the Effective Migration Rate (ME=12.4) and the Coefficient of Breeding Isolation (CBI=246.2) of Lasker & Kaplan (1964) were calculated. The value of the latter index indicates that genetic drift in the Alpujarrenian population is negligible at present because of the cessation of reproductive isolation due to the development of communication networks.

In order to examine the prevalence of HIV infection and associated risk factors amongst Spanish female prostitutes a multicentre (n=22) cross-sectional study was conducted between November 1989 and January 1991. Data collected included socioeconomic characteristics, sexual behaviour and health status together with blood samples. A total of 1633 prostitutes were recruited into the study. Of these, 1433 (87.8%) consented to blood samples being taken and 180 (12.6%) were HIV positive. HIV seroprevalence was 54.7% for intravenous drug users (IVDUs) versus 3.7% for non-IVDUs. Previous imprisonment, hepatitis B and a partner who was an IVDU were significant predictors of HIV infection according to multivariate logistic regression models.

Family planning programmes in Tanzania date back to the 1950s. By the early 1990s, however, only 5-10% of women of childbearing age used contraceptives in the country. Low contraceptive prevalence in Tanzania is reportedly attributable to men's opposition to family planning. This paper employs focus groups to explore the role of Tanzanian men in family planning. More specifically, it presents a rural-urban comparison of the attitudes of men in Mbeya region, Tanzania, to family size preference, sex composition, partners' communication on family planning matters and contraceptive behaviour. Findings indicate that men express positive attitudes towards fertility-regulating methods. There is, moreover, little rural-urban variation in male attitudes towards family planning in the study area. Possible reasons for this normative convergence (including structural similarities and rural–urban migration between the two communities) are discussed.

In collaboration with the National Committee for Population and Family Planning, a study was conducted in 1994 in two Vietnamese communes to provide community level information on women's reproductive health and behaviours. A survey of 504 rural and 523 urban women collected five-year histories of reproduction, contraception, abortion and symptoms of Reproductive Tract Infections (RTI). This analysis focuses on the relationships between women's individual characteristics, use of family planning and abortion, and reported RTI symptoms. The findings reveal that IUDs do not raise women's likelihood of experiencing RTI symptoms in either commune. A recent abortion, however, strongly increases women's likelihood of having RTI symptoms in the rural commune, while low socio-economic status is associated with RTI symptoms in the urban commune.

The Anjangmui dialect group of the Kombio in Papua New Guinea has experienced a rapid increase in rural-urban migration since European contact commenced in the 1930s. Population ecology analyses of birth and migration histories for 240 Anjangmui women showed a higher total marital fertility rate in the cohort born in 1940-59 than that born in 1920-39. A decline in the age at menarche for nutritional reasons, and reduction in the birth interval for behavioural reasons, may explain the fertility difference between cohorts. Comparison of age-specific marital fertility rates between migrants in urban areas and non-migrants in rural areas revealed higher rates among migrants in the 15-19 and 20-24 year age groups, but lower rates in the 25-29 year or older age groups; the total marital fertility rate for migrants was lower than that for non-migrants. The differences may be attributable to the different influences of birth control practices on fertility reduction between the migrants in urban areas and non-migrants in rural areas. It is suggested that rural-urban migration in the Anjangmui during the post-contact period has had the effect of reducing fertility in the population as a whole.

Dr A. Bener and colleagues have reported socio-demographic risk factors associated with low birthweight in United Arab Emirates by conducting a case-control study.

We would like to thank Dr K. Nagaraj for his comments on our article and would like to respond and clarify a few points.