Respiratory illness continues to be a leading cause of paediatric morbidity and mortality in Indonesia. The Indonesian government is moving towards a more managed care-based approach as it reforms its health care system following the 1997 financial crisis. In order to better design contractual relationships between the payor and different providers, there needs to be a better understanding of the patterns and predictors of health services utilization for respiratory illness. This study uses the Indonesia Demographic and Health Survey to study the determinants of private, public and non-formal provider utilization for respiratory illness. Multinomial logistic regression models for predicting use were constructed using the Andersen Behavioural Model as the conceptual framework. The findings indicate that age, household size, maternal education, religion, the asset index, location and illness severity play a role in determining use of private, public or non-formal providers. The results indicate that from a policy perspective, the Indonesian government needs be inclusive rather than exclusive in the choice of providers that are contracted by the managed care plans, in order to safeguard the health of the under-five population.

This paper examines age patterns of first marriage and motherhood and covariates of early marriage, delayed consummation of marriage and early motherhood in Nepal using data from the 2000 Nepal Adolescent and Young Adult Survey (NAYA). Both unmarried and married male and female youths (age 14–22) were included in the survey. The analysis is based on 2800 urban youths and 5075 rural youths with complete information on the variables examined. Proportional hazard models are used to estimate covariates of early marriage and early motherhood, and logistic regression models are used to estimate covariates of delayed consummation of marriage. The results show that early marriage and early motherhood are quite common among Nepalese women, especially in rural areas. Early marriage is much less common among men. Delayed consummation of marriage is common among very young brides, especially in rural areas. The main covariates associated with early marriage and early motherhood are respondent’s education, region of residence and ethnicity. The main covariates of delayed consummation of marriage are age at first marriage, region of residence and ethnicity. The study highlights the need to focus on less educated female youths in the Terai region in order to reduce the reproductive and child health risks associated with early marriage and early childbearing.

Surnames were obtained for the second half of the 20th century from civil and religious marriage registers on fifteen Provençal-Italian and five Italian villages of Cuneo Province, Italy. To insert in the analysis an outward comparison, surnames from two Italian villages of Turin Province, one parish of Turin, one village of Alessandria Province and one village of Asti Province were also collected. Ethnicity does not seem to be the main factor affecting the present genetic structure of the Provençal-Italians. They are an open community, and evidence the end of the genetic isolation of the alpine populations.

This is an exploratory study to examine the social and cultural determinants of the teaching of HIV/AIDS sex education among secondary school teachers in Eastern Nigeria. The research analyses how teachers perceive passing their knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention measures to their students in the context of their cultural and social norms, which restrict open discussion of sex. This is a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with 60 teachers drawn from secondary school teachers in Eastern Nigeria, supplemented with five focus group discussions, and content analysis of teachers’ lesson preparatory notes. The findings show a high level knowledge of HIV/AIDS preventive measures among teachers. However, teachers are not passing on this knowledge because of cultural and social inhibitions. In addition, teachers have not been receiving adequate training and motivation on information, education and communication for HIV/AIDS sex education. The situation calls for serious policy intervention.

This paper investigates the statistical association between teenage births and the physical growth path of these mothers. It draws on data on the height of ever-married women aged 15–49 and their birth histories collected in India’s National Family Health Survey in 1998–99, and shows that there was a negative relationship between final adult height of women and the number of births they had as teenagers. Using multiple regression analysis, it is shown that this negative relationship is robust to confounding factors such as standard of living, urban–rural residence, state of origin in India and age of the women.

Child mortality (the mortality of children less than five years old) declined considerably in the developing world in the 1990s, but infant mortality declined less. The reductions in neonatal mortality were not impressive and, as a consequence, there is an increasing percentage of infant deaths in the neonatal period. Any further reduction in child mortality, therefore, requires an understanding of the determinants of neonatal mortality. 209,628 birth and 2581 neonatal death records for the 1998 birth cohort from the city of São Paulo, Brazil, were probabilistically matched. Data were from SINASC and SIM, Information Systems on Live Births and Deaths of Brazil. Logistic regression was used to find the association between neonatal mortality and the following risk factors: birth weight, gestational age, Apgar scores at 1 and 5 minutes, delivery mode, plurality, sex, maternal education, maternal age, number of prior losses, prenatal care, race, parity and community development. Infants of older mothers were less likely to die in the neonatal period. Caesarean delivery was not found to be associated with neonatal mortality. Low birth weight, pre-term birth and low Apgar scores were associated with neonatal death. Having a mother who lives in the highest developed community decreased the odds of neonatal death, suggesting that factors not measured in this study are behind such association. This result may also indicate that other factors over and above biological and more proximate factors could affect neonatal death.

The aim of this paper is to account for the effect of mother's death on child survival in a historical population. Using comprehensive data on the early French Canadian population of Quebec, evidence is provided for a higher risk of dying for motherless children that remains significant over all childhood and long after the death of the mother. The specific effect of the loss of maternal care was estimated by comparing mortality before and after mother's death, furnishing a means to control for family heterogeneity. No differential in investment between genders was detected before age 3, but older girls suffered a three-fold higher susceptibility to mother's death than their male counterparts. This suggests that grown-up girls assuming the responsibilities of the missing mother had a lower chance of survival.

Using data from Wave 1 of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, this paper analyses the extent to which childlessness among Australian women aged 40–54 years varies according to the size and type of family in which they were brought up, and the level and type of schooling they had. Multilevel logistic analysis shows that having been educated in a non-government school, having stayed at school to year 12, having a small number of siblings, at age 14 having a father who was either dead or absent, at age 14 having a father who was employed in a professional occupation, or being a migrant from North or West Europe, North America, East Asia or South-East Asia, all are significantly associated with higher rates of childlessness among women in the 40–54 years age range. The effects of these early lifecourse variables on marital and socioeconomic status in later life, and hence on childlessness, are also considered. The implications of the findings for fertility trends and for Australia’s public debate are discussed.

Analyses of height variation using the 1970 UK national cohort study (12,508 children at age 10 and 5470 at age 16) found clear evidence that children of higher socioeconomic status (as measured by social class, crowding, tenure, type of accommodation, income and receipt of government financial assistance) were on average taller than children of lower socioeconomic status but there was little or no difference in average stature between children living in urban or rural areas. Significant differences in height remained for most of the variables after removing the effects of father’s social class suggesting that reliance on social class per se to explain height variation is inadvisable.